USERS GOING STRAIGHT 'BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING ELSE AROUND'

"Tina", 22, has good reason to know there has been a two-month drought of
heroin in Melbourne. Her ex-boyfriend, with whom she broke up over his
heroin use, has told her that since the heroin scarcity he has been at home
going into detox (detoxification or heroin withdrawal).

But Tina, who battled with the drug for six years herself - "I first used
at 14 and first detoxed at 15-and-a-half" - and is just coming off
methadone, doubts he will make it through. "He is doing it for all the
wrong reasons. He is going straight because there is nothing else around,"
she said.

He is among a noticeable number of heroin users in Melbourne who have been
driven by the heroin scarcity to try to kick the habit or to enter a
methadone program.

But Tina doubts many will bother once supplies of the drug reappear. "I've
seen it too many times. When there is a drought people give up, but when it
returns they go back to it. Only a minority keep on. But I don't think I've
ever seen a drought as bad as this."

She gave The Age her real name but asked that it not be used for family
reasons. She is a student at the Footscray-based Victoria University of
Technology, studying to become a youth worker, but still runs into friends
she knew when she was a user.

"I know there is a lot more violence on the streets. A lot of people are
getting ripped off. They find out what they have been sold is Panadol.
That's the worse feeling, after getting the money somehow. I see people
with machete marks."

As a former user she sees another side to the drought and the police
clean-up of Footscray. "There's more shoppers on the street, more students.
It has given people who don't use an opportunity to get out without being
harassed."

Tina, who grew up in Sunshine, said she first took up the needle because of
problems after her parents divorced.

"At the time, there was a big movement of Asians into Sunshine who I became
friendly with, and a lot of their parents were dealing, so they grew up
around heroin. The drug was really good and it took away the bad feelings."

She financed her habit from money her father handed out on visits, from
selling off anything she possessed and from dealing.

She has been clean for two years. "Don't get me wrong. Every day is a
fight, but I've relapsed once too many times not to keep at it this time."