Young girls 'swap sex for heroin' in ACT

By Jim Dickins

Street prostitution is emerging in Civic, girls as young as 14 swapping sex
for drugs, or money to buy them, according to evidence given to ACT MLAs
and information obtained by The Canberra Times.

The coordinator of Pathways, an information and referral service for young
people, David Matthews, told the Inquiry into Services for Dhildren at Risk
in the ACT that teenaged prostitutes were working often without condoms
in the area around Garema Place and Bunda Street.

A 17 year old prostitute told The Canberra Times she had worked in Civic
for four months to support her heroin habit. She knew girls as young as 14
doing the same. So far, her work had not been hindered by police.

"I feel quite horrible used in some cases," she said. She averaged about
15 sessions a week either with strangers, whom she "sussed out" first by
watching their behaviour, or with one of her five "regulars".

She always used condoms, but a second prostitute, an 18 yearold who works
in a brothel to support her heroin habit, said she knew several young Civic
sex workers who did not.

"I think a lot of them just think of it as a fast way to get their drugs...

"Its normally a lot of the younger, underage girls that do it just
because they're scared of working underage in brothels," she said.

The minimum age women can legally work in brothels in the ACT is 18.

Evidence of street prostitution comes as city shop owners renew complaints
about heroin being openly used and traded around Garema Place.

The 17yearold said that present rehabilitation programs had not helped
her, and she needed an alternative, such as the proposed ACT heroin trial.

"I'm pretty much openminded to trying anything, because my drug use isn't
getting any better," she said.

Mr Matthews warned the inquiry that a "risktaking" culture was developing
in Canberra's drug scene, increasing the possiblity of HIV exposure. The
number of young drug users had dramatically increased in recent years, a
trend he blamed on harder economic times in the city.

A program manager at the Drug Referral and Information Service, Deborah
Felton, confirmed that prostitution among female drug users was "prominent
enough to be cause for enormous concern". The service's figures showed 16
1/2 was now the average age Canberra heroin users began taking the drug.
Police estimate there are about 3000 heroin users in Canberra.

ACT Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker, chairwoman of the Standing Committee on
Social Policy making the inquiry, said present drugrehabilitation services
did not meet young people's needs. "We must have some more appropriate
facility for young people with substance abuse problems... We need more
options, including a residential facility," she said.

The inadequacy of a youth drugrehabilitation program was part of a wider
picture of poor coordination in youth service provision.