BIG RISE IN OVERDOSE DEATHS

Heroin-related deaths in Victoria have increased dramatically over
the past decade, but figures for this year suggest a temporary
downturn.

Heroin claimed 331 Victorians last year, down 8per cent from a peak
of 359 deaths in 1999, but still far more than the 49 deaths recorded
in 1991.

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine figures show a huge increase
in heroin-related deaths in the past 36 months. There were 166
overdose deaths in 1997, rising to 268 in 1998.

This year, there were six heroin-related deaths in January and two in
February compared with last year when an average of 28 heroin users
died each month in Victoria.

Turning Point drug and alcohol centre's senior research fellow, Paul
Dietze, said indications were that there had been a drop in supply
this year.

"I understand there's been a few more deaths and there have been
reports of more non-fatal overdoses. There's just been an
interruption of supply, and those sort of things fluctuate over
time," he said.

Since 1991, 1731 people, 80 per cent of them men, have died after using heroin.