SHOT OF LIFE HELPS EASE TRAGIC LEGACY OF HEROIN

MEGAN is a second generation heroin addict.

But the difference between her and her mother, Debbie, is that she is alive
and full of hope.

Debbie was a victim of a deadly batch of pure heroin in late 1983. She died
on Boxing Day at the age of 29, leaving her daughter, then 11, to be raised
by her own mother, Lily.

Megan, who used cannabis from 16 and was given her first heroin hit by her
then boyfriend at 22, is a patient of naltrexone doctor George O'Neil and a
volunteer at his Subiaco clinic.

She says Dr O'Neil stresses to his patients that they risk dying of an
overdose as a result of their reduced tolerance for opiates if they leave
the naltrexone program and use heroin.

Megan, 28, was prescribed naltrexone tablets but stopped taking them and
twice slipped back into a life of heroin addiction.

She stopped the first time because she could not afford the treatment while
living on a pension - naltrexone then was not free - and because her
partner then was a heroin addict.

The second time she thought she was clean but succumbed to heroin again
after three weeks.

But determined to break her habit, she went back on to naltrexone tablets
last August and had a six-month naltrexone implant inserted in her stomach
five weeks ago. When it runs out, she will have another fitted.

"There's less chance of error with implants, especially during times of
stress. It offers patients and their families peace of mind," she says.

"It's a bit like the difference between taking a daily oral contraceptive
and having a Depo-Provera contraceptive injection.

"If you slip off the pill you risk pregnancy, but if you slip off
naltrexone and start taking heroin again you risk dying from an overdose."

She quotes Dr O'Neil as saying that if a patient stays on naltrexone for
one year they have a 20 per cent chance of staying clean. After three years
it rises to 80 per cent.

She claims naltrexone has allowed her to build a relationship with her own
daughter who, at eight, is only four years younger than Dr O'Neil's
youngest patient.

Lily says that for any treatment to succeed addicts have to want to get off
drugs and not go on to a program just because of family pressure or because
they have been in trouble with the law. The hardest part for an addict was
breaking away from partners or friends who were addicts.