HEROIN SHORTAGE SPARKS CRIME RISE

A severe heroin shortage is being blamed for an increase in violent crime
in parts of Melbourne, including a recent shooting and a fatal stabbing.

Police and outreach workers in the western suburbs and the inner city
believe desperation over limited and expensive heroin lay behind a fatal
stabbing in Footscray on February 23, a shooting in St Albans two days
later, and a spate of armed robberies.

The heroin scarcity is also believed to have caused an increase in
snatch-and-grab street robberies, a rise in teenage prostitution and a
resurgence in the crime of "fencing" - passing stolen goods.

The head of Altona's Embona Taskforce, which investigates robberies,
Detective Sergeant Mick Grainger, said: "Because there is a bit of a
shortage, it stands to reason the junkies aren't getting the same quality
of stuff that they used to, and drugs are more expensive ... they are
certainly committing more crimes in order to get that lower grade drug, to
get the same quantity of drug in their bodies, so they are getting more and
more desperate."

Open Family outreach worker Richard Tregear, who works in Footscray,
Richmond, Collingwood and the CBD, said: "An amazing (heroin) drought is on
... you need a real lot of money and that's causing tension on the street.
I've never seen so many black eyes, so many broken jaws and fractured
cheeks and machete marks and stabbings of people."

The shooting and stabbing were related to heroin deals "gone wrong because
people are selling stuff that's not heroin".

"People are selling a really bad product for a real lot of money," he
said.The price of heroin has soared to four or five times its pre-Christmas
price in Melbourne of $280 to $320 for 1.7 grams. A gram of heroin has been
selling for around $1000 in recent months. Mr Tregear said around .1 or .2
of a gram was fetching $50.

He said there were signs, late last week that the drought might be about to
break with the price settling back to $500 a gram - still double the
pre-Christmas figure.

The information officer at the Sydney-based National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre, Paul Dillon, said Sydney was experiencing a heroin drought
but "in Melbourne it's almost impossible to get".

"I think we do have to acknowledge that increased law enforcement actually
has, for the first time since "the heroin epidemic" has been around, has
affected supply. They have managed to access, some of the big guys."

He said South-East Asian exporters of the drug might be artificially
withholding supplies to raise the price of the drug and because the
Australian dollar was so weak.

Mr Tregear said the shortage had created an increased demand for methadone
and detoxification facilities, which could not be met.

He agreed the heroin drought had occurred through a combination of police
work and dealers holding back supplies.

Detective Sergeant Grainger said a crime wave over the past eight weeks
included the recent arrest by the Embona Taskforce of two users over a
number of hold-ups on convenience stores.