MOVE TO SUPPLY NARCAN TO ADDICTS

HEROIN users may be given the revival drug naloxone to treat overdoses in
their peers as part of a new national push to curb drug deaths. The move
comes as the federal Government is reconsidering subsidising the
heroin-craving blocker drug naltrexone for heroin users in response to new
research supporting its effectiveness.

The Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy, made up of national health
ministers, is considering a trial of naloxone, marketed as Narcan, in light
of the continuing toll of heroin deaths, which has topped 1000 per year.

Naloxone is used by ambulance workers to treat opioid overdose. It is
available on prescription to doctors, but has never been made freely
available to the public.

Naltrexone is a craving stopper administered to get addicts off heroin.

Proponents of naloxone being made available to users argue it could save
lives in situations where heroin users are too afraid of criminal
ramifications to call an ambulance.

The National Drug Research Institute at Perth's Curtin University argues
the merits of a trial in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.

The institute's researchers investigated the issue at the request of the
West Australian Health Department, which has since decided not to conduct a
trial. A spokesman said the drug may give people a false sense of security
so they do not resuscitate people, call ambulances or seek medical
attention in the event of an overdose.

But the researchers say a controlled trial is the only way to determine this.

A senior research fellow at the institute, Simon Lenton, said a trial would
cost about $300,000 over 12 to 18 months, involve about 500 people and
compare outcomes in two groups.

In new research by a team from Westmead Hospital in Sydney, a trial of
naltrexone has resulted in half those participating staying off heroin for
more than 12 months.

Research leader Dr Jon Currie, head of the Western Sydney Area Health
Service, found that in a trial involving 150 heroin users half had not gone
back to heroin after 12 months.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said that if there was
new evidence, then the Government was willing to look at it.