HEROIN TRIAL BID FACES A BARRAGE OF OPPOSITION

HEROIN Claimed 80 WA Lives Last Year. This Year, 42 Young Lives Have
Been Lost to the Addiction

Safe injecting rooms are being tested in Sydney but other States have
opposed the move and there are no heroin prescription trials in
Australia despite attempts by the Australian Capital Territory Government.

In the WA Legislative Council last month, Australian Democrat Norm
Kelly got to debate a motion he introduced 10 months ago for an
inquiry into heroin prescription trials and safe injecting rooms in
which addicts would get controlled doses of heroin and be forced to
agree to a program aimed at finding work, a secure place to live and
getting them off the drug.

But Attorney-General Peter Foss argued during the debate that a heroin
trial would not work in WA as it did in Switzerland because in WA
young people were anti- authoritarian and anti-organisation.

Mr Foss said he had had an interest in the issue since before entering
Parliament and had followed studies done around the world.

He argued that the trials posed difficult questions, such as how
adults could be supplied but not children when many of the addicts
were under 18. If it was such a good treatment, why not provide it to
children, he said, adding that he would oppose that.

Mr Kelly said he was not proposing extending the trial, if an inquiry
found it should take place, to children.

The results of a Swiss heroin trial were published last year by the
person who oversaw it, Professor Ambros Uchtenhagen, in The Medical
Prescription of Narcotics.

The results were from 1146 patients who had failed other
detoxification programs.

Of those, 353 left Professor Uchtenhagen's program and 63 per cent of
those addicts switched to another treatment. After 18 months,
permanent employment among addicts doubled to 32 per cent.

Income from illegal activities dropped to 30 per cent after six months
but had risen back to 90 per cent at 18 months because people were
leaving the program.

The use by the patients of illicit drugs increased after the
completion of treatment but remained below the initial level.

The book also said there was an annual death rate of one per cent for
all the participants, fewer than in other heroin treatment programs
such as methadone treatments.

Its final recommendation was that heroin-assisted treatment continue
but be confined to the target group and properly equipped and supervised.

Last year, 54 per cent of Swiss voters barrage of opposition

accepted a Government proposal to change narcotics law to continue the
program.

Last week, Federal Labor leader Kim Beazley supported safe injecting
rooms, adding that he had an open mind on a trial of legalised heroin.
Previously, he had opposed a trial similar to the Swiss.

WA Drug Abuse Strategy Office executive director Terry Murphy says
Perth does not have the same kind of street-level dealing occurring in
other cities. He opposes safe injecting rooms and a heroin
prescription trial, in accordance with the State Government's policy.

"An injecting drug room in Perth would create a public space for
injecting drug use and attendant drug dealing," he said. "It would
require a policy of containment by police. It could not avoid making
it easier to buy heroin and sending a message that this is accepted by
the community."

Former heroin addict Richard says it is easy to get heroin and the
Government could provide cleaner heroin and help addicts with support
services and programs.

The State Labor Party has a policy to hold an inquiry into both Mr
Kelly's proposals if it wins the next election.

Premier Richard Court and the Federal Government oppose both
measures.

The Perth doctor treating heroin addicts with naltrexone, George
O'Neil, does not support the prescription trial.

Dr O'Neil expects to treat 2000 addicts this year and believes he is
making an impact on crime rates. Naltrexone is an opiate blocker,
which he administers to his patients to detoxify them rapidly.

"We have had 20 years of giving opiates out," he said, referring to
methadone treatments.

He said that though heroin would be the preference of some addicts,
they would have to line up a few times a day for injections instead of
once a day on a methadone program. The cost of the heroin trial,
$18,000 a patient each year, also was a strong argument against it.
But there could be a place for safe injecting rooms.

Dr O'Neil, who wants the Government to give his program more money,
said that if every treatment option was well funded and there was the
necessary support for addicts, then injecting rooms could be an option.

Mr Kelly's motion in the Legislative Council is still being debated
and it could be passed if the opposition parties and Independent MLC
Mark Nevill vote together.

The establishment of an inquiry to look more closely at safe injecting
rooms and a heroin prescription trial also would be likely to take
place under a Labor government or a hung Parliament.

Mr Kelly said that between 1984 and 1993 in WA there was an average of
22 deaths from opiates every year. In the past six years, that number
had more than trebled.

He said it was clear the Government's prohibition policies were not
working and that other measures had to be debated and tried.

"You can't treat an addict when they are dead," he said.