DEALERS FORCED TO TAKE LOWER PROFILE, BUT TRADE GOES ON

Drinkers at the Cabramatta Inn wouldn't want to have weak bladders.
Every time one of them wants to use the toilet they have to ask a
barmaid to unlock the door.

But the locals don't seem to mind the inconvenience - it's just
another minor regulation they accept as necessary to keep as much
heroin as possible out of the pub.

The locked toilet doors followed the removal of public phones, to
discourage drug dealers, and the rule that cigarettes are not sold
after dark, to stop quick visits from pushers and users.

Still, management asks up to 200 suspected heroin users and dealers to
leave the premises every day. Standing at the bottom of Cabramatta's
main street, across from the railway station and a police shopfront,
the hotel looks over much of the suburb's troubles.

An increased police presence, and a policy of formally charging those
caught with even small quantities of heroin, has reduced the level of
open heroin dealing on Cabramatta's streets. But the trade goes on.

To the untrained eye, not much out of the ordinary goes on in the CBD
these days between 9am and 3pm, when police beat patrols are
concentrated. But from about 5pm the young men who have spent the day
being pat-searched and asked to "move on" start standing their ground.

In Freedom Plaza, off John Street, in Arthur Street and Railway
Parade, across the rail line in Bloomfield Street and alleys in
between, a couple of dozen dealers were obviously waiting for clients
yesterday. In Fisher Street, two prostitutes sat within sight of the
railway station charging $5 for oral sex.

Locals say the numbers of dealers has dropped in recent weeks,
particularly during business hours, but some suspect much of the trade
has simply moved to residential buildings in John, Hughes, McBurney
and Cumberland streets during the day.

A shop owner in Railway Parade said police had been responsible for
dealers moving away from the front of his business.

"It's better than before because they used to be here all day," he
said. "When the police are around they disappear. The police come up
this way and they walk that way."

The price of heroin has soared since the start of the year from as low
as $20 a quarter gram to $50, $70, even $100. Dealers look for new
potential customers by tossing questions like "You right?", nodding,
or whistling.

In Belvedere Arcade, a businesswoman said she hadn't seen dealers
outside her door for a week.

Less than 20 metres away in John Street, a teenage drug dealer was
squatting on a bench, whistling away. The president of Cabramatta
Chamber of Commerce, Mr Ross Treyvaud, asked if he was having a busy
day. "Yeah," the smiling youth replied.

Mr Treyvaud, the publican of the Cabramatta Inn, pointed across to
Freedom Plaza and seven men he recognised as long-time dealers. "It's
the same faces every day," he said.