ADDICT STANDS FOR LIBS

'I'm a filthy dirty junkie who could not, until now, call myself a junkie'

LAST month Mardi McLean, the endorsed Liberal candidate for Bundamba, wrote
a letter which she hoped would change her life. Mardi, 22, is a recovering
heroin addict who was tempted by friends to "try" injecting when she was a
16-year-old student at the exclusive St Margaret's Anglican Grammar School,
Ascot.

She has overdosed 11 times and wonders how she is still alive. Dozens of
her friends have not been so fortunate.

Her heart-wrenching letter said in part: "Mum: For the first time in my
life I want to come clean with myself and be honest to me and to you. I'm a
filthy dirty junkie who could not, until now, call myself a junkie. I
considered myself a person who was trendy and upper-class, better than
everyone else and who used heroin.

"But I now know that I'm no better than a hooker in the Valley shoving
needles in my arm to kill my soul, spirit, heart and self-esteem. I know
I'm not only ruining my life but your's and all the people who care about me."

Two weeks ago Mardi underwent a Naltrexone implant programme at Dr Stuart
Reece's Highgate Hill clinic.

"I've been clean for months, but this is the best thing that has ever
happened to me since I started using," she said. "Too many of my friends
have died. This morning I accompanied a 16-year-old girl who had overdosed
to hospital. This electorate -- Brisbane -- is just full of drugs, and it
is wrong that it will take an election to make it an issue.

"The Liberal Party is the only party which has a proper policy, and on
Sunday we are all joining the Naltrexone rally which leaves Parliament
House at 10am. We have to support Dr Reece. He's just such a wonderful
person, and the only hope that us junkies have.

"That's why I am contesting for the Liberals -- it is imperative that we
make drug rehabilitation an issue.

"It is a medical problem, not criminal."

Liberal Party state director Graham Jaeschke yesterday said the party was
aware of Mardi's battle with drugs and supported her in her rehabilitation.

"She is a terrific example to thousands of other kids out there who face
this dreadful problem, and the Liberal Party is totally supportive of Mardi."

Mardi is a Royal Show champion equestrian and last April was crowned Miss
Darling Downs Showgirl. In 1994, she was a state finalist in the Dolly
magazine cover girl model contest.

Her candidature for the February 17 election for the safe Labor seat could
not be more low-key. She has no budget, no posters, no advertising and no
printed material to post to constituents or put in letter boxes. She is
unsure where there will be helpers to hand out how-to-vote cards.

"Heroin is not a recreational drug. It's evil -- disgusting. Nobody wants
to be a heroin addict and every addict I know wants to get off the drug.
The only hope is Naltrexone, and they all want it, but it is expensive and
politicians and authorities are dithering about getting behind it," Mardi said.

"More than 90 percent of heroin users would be hepatitis C-positive. It
sucks that our lives are in the hands of politicians."

Mardi said there were only three ways to sustain a daily heroin habit like
hers -- to steal, deal or prostitute one's body. "I was on Austudy and used
that, and used to deal all the time. My mates would have money and luckily
I have come out of it never having got into trouble with the law or
prostitution, and without any diseases," she said.

Dr Reece, who continues to lobby political and health authorities to
recognise Naltrexone as the way to fight the "heroin war", said Mardi had
turned her life around with her will to beat her addiction.