DRUG LESSONS URGED FOR ALL CHILDREN

Primary and secondary schoolchildren should be given drug education at
every year level to curb drug use, according to the Prime Minister's top
drug advisory group.

The Australian National Council on Drugs also wants ambulance officers and
paramedics to follow up overdose victims and steer them into
rehabilitation, needle exchange programs and health centres.

In a paper released yesterday on heroin overdosing the council urges a
range of measures to curb Australia's spiralling drug toll. The paper aims
to help state, territory and national governments develop a national strategy.

Although the group does not explicitly support supervised heroin injecting
rooms, it said that, should they be tried, they needed to be rigorously
evaluated.

The council, chaired by the Salvation Army's Brian Watters, said education
programs must be implemented to better manage overdoses once they had
occurred. To do this, it called for programs that taught drug users and
their families basic resuscitation techniques and other practical skills
that could save the life of an overdose victim.

According to the most recent annual figures, 737 people died from heroin
overdoses in 1998. But drug workers believe the toll climbed sharply in
1999 and again this year.

According to the paper, more cooperation is needed between police and
health authorities to handle drug overdoses.

To tackle heroin use among addicts the council called for:

More drug rehabilitation beds.

Wider availability of methadone.

More education on the risks of mixing drugs.

A national education campaign for drug users.

The council also urged trials of programs that would see the revival drug
naloxone more widely available. At the moment naloxone is carried by every
Melbourne ambulance, hospital emergency departments and some doctors' clinics.

The council's executive officer, Gino Vumbaca, said education was crucial
in the fight against heroin. "Kids need to know that there are drugs in our
society, that people do use them and there are a whole range of them, legal
and illegal. They need to understand what the dangers are of using drugs
and what the implications are," he said.

Margaret Hamilton, a council member and director of the Turning Point
Alcohol and Drug Centre, said it was vital to better educate the families
and friends of drug users about overdose signs and what to do after an
overdose. . "Families do care and they can do more to help avoid
overdoses," she said.