SUBURBS SEE SURGE IN DRUG USE

A MT LAWLEY businessman says junkies have set up a heroin campsite in
the carpark behind his shop, complete with shelter, water bottle and
spoon.

"One lunchtime we saw two ladies out there lift up their skirts and
shoot up," said Mike, a member of the Mt Lawley Business Association,
who did not want to be named for fear of jeopardising his Beaufort
Street business.

He said people had been held up by robbers wielding syringes outside
his shop.

"You won't pass a day without passing a syringe or a syringe packet,"
he said.

The pattern fits experts' views that Perth's heroin scene is a
suburban one.

WA Drug Abuse Strategy Office executive director Terry Murphy said
Perth had no heroin hot spots such as King's Cross in Sydney.

"There's no one place in Perth where people go," Mr Murphy
said.

One of the strongest indications was the location of heroin deaths, he
said.

Of the 151 confirmed deaths in 1997 and 1998 in WA, more than half
were in the suburban and regional areas, compared with small clumps of
deaths in densely populated, inner-city areas.

For example, there were eight deaths in Fremantle, eight in Perth, six
in Scarborough and five in Northbridge.

Of the total, there were 20 deaths in public places, such as carparks,
public toilets, streets and alleys, while the rest were in private
homes, hotels and hostels. Two deaths were in prisons.

Mr Murphy said visible heroin use in suburbs - characterised by public
overdoses and needles - was generally associated with younger users
who tended to move around.

"People find discarded needles and you infer from that there's
something going on in a particular area, but it tends to move," he
said.

Businesses in Mt Lawley say the prominence of drug users in the past
six months is deterring customers.

"A lot of people are concerned about the level of drug use and it
intimidates and deters shoppers," said another Beaufort Street shop
owner, who discovered a man overdosed in his car in the carpark behind
her shop two weeks ago. She said there had been an increasing
incidence of robberies and bag snatching in Mt Lawley.

"We appreciate the police are stretched but I'd like to see a greater
police presence in the area," she said.

A massive increase in world production and supply of heroin since the
mid-90s is believed to be boosting usage.

Sgt David Boothman, of Mirrabooka police, said he could count several
suburban areas that had become problematic in recent months.

"It's an issue that's coming up more and more and affecting the
affluent areas as much as the areas that are a bit poorer," he said.