DRUG EXPERT CALLS FOR CITY CLINIC TO BE SHUT

A LEADING medical practitioner in the area of drug addiction yesterday
called for a Brisbane naltrexone heroin treatment clinic to be closed
immediately.

Psychiatrist Ian Curtis said that Dr Stuart Reece's clinic at West End
should be shut so a professional assessment could be made of his radical
treatment methods.

Dr Curtis also slammed the proposed introduction of heroin ``shooting
galleries''.

He said that instead of decriminalising drugs, the people using them should
be decriminalised and treated as patients, not criminals.

Dr Curtis said he was concerned about figures on the deaths of addicts
acknowledged by Dr Reece in an interview published in the Courier-Mail last
Saturday. Dr Reece said in the article that he had treated almost 850
patients with naltrexone since 1998 and knew of 24 deaths among them.

"About a year after we began there was a cluster of deaths,'' Dr Reece
said. `` I think that's because addicts don't believe what we tell them
that it can be dangerous and they find out for themselves. The kids are
dying anyway and anyone who tries to help will have deaths.''

Dr Curtis said it was generally understood that follow-up care for such a
patient population was very difficult ``and I am sure that Dr Reece would
agree that his figures for outcomes and for the deaths will be an
under-estimation''.

"I believe, given the figures acknowledged already, that Dr Reece should
cease his program until it is evaluated and he can thoughtfully recover
from the stress in which he has put himself by being a Noah's Ark for
desperate people,'' Dr Curtis said.

"I am concerned that the present situation is hazardous for Dr Reece and
perhaps for his patients and surely for the future for diverse therapies
for other sufferers.

"I agree absolutely with Professor John Saunders of the University of
Queensland that perhaps only 3 to 5 per cent of sufferers are suitable for
naltrexone therapy.''

Dr Curtis, an adviser on alcohol and drugs to Queensland governments since
1982 and foundation director of the Health Department's alcohol and drug
policy branch, said Australians had tended to be excessive in the use of
mind-altering substances.

"Unfortunately poorly informed debates about hard versus soft drugs lead
young people to flirt with the risk-taking and the adventure of youth with
substances of dubious origin and complex physiology and biochemistry,'' Dr
Curtis said.

"There is a tragedy where we are regularly losing a percentage of our young
people to drug dependence and that tragedy now affects nearly every family
in Australia.

"Parents being parents are desperate to get things fixed quickly...many
people can be misdirected in thinking that a quick fix is available.
Whatever the method of treatment, good follow-up and long-term supervision
by professionals is fundamental to a good outcome.''

Dr Reece last night said he had no comment to make.