TRY HEROIN ROOMS, SAYS DRUG SQUAD CHIEF

Victoria's most senior drug investigator has called for prescription heroin
for long-term addicts and supervised injecting room trials.

Detective Chief Inspector John McKoy, who retired yesterday as head of the
drug squad, said he had reluctantly concluded that the steps were
necessary. "This goes against my training, upbringing and beliefs but I
believe we have to look at these alternatives," he said.

"Prescription heroin would save a heck of a lot of lives and would reduce
other crime problems dramatically.

"What we are doing is not working and we have to try to find a better way.
I firmly believe the government should try at least one safe injecting
house and see how it goes."

Mr McKoy said police could easily arrest twice the number of drug
traffickers, but the courts and prisons could not handle the volume. "If we
had another 200 full-time drug investigators we could use them, but the
system couldn't cope. The system is already choked ..."

In a wide-ranging interview with The Age on the eve of his retirement, Mr
McKoy said narcotics syndicates had greater resources than the drug squad.
The explosion in drug trafficking in the past few years was partially due
to mid-1990s government cuts in resources for the Federal Police, Customs
and the drug squad.

He said police intelligence indicated:

An explosion in designer drugs, including a dangerous amphetamines tablet
made in Thailand, known as Shaboo.

The lucrative anabolic steroid trade would continue to grow after the
Sydney Olympics.

International amphetamines syndicates would move into Australia because of
the success of the drug squad in closing local laboratories.

A massive increase in the availability of heroin as record opium crops in
Afghanistan supplemented the South-East Asian supplies.

Some drug traffickers had turned over tens of millions of dollars in
Australian casinos in just 12 months.

Mr McKoy, the longest-serving senior drug squad investigator in Australia,
said judges were not reflecting community concerns when sentencing traffickers.

"The law allows for a 25-year sentence for trafficking a commercial
quantity, yet the highest I've seen is 11 years. When a major trafficker
gets a minimum of four years when the maximum is 25 years then to me it is
not a deterrent."

Mr McKoy, who joined the drug squad in 1989 and took over the squad in
1995, said the quantity and purity of heroin in Melbourne had spiralled in
recent years.

"In 1992 our undercover operatives could buy an ounce (28.3 grams) of
heroin around 20 per cent pure for $10,000. A few years later an ounce of
between 80 to 90per cent pure could be bought for $6000 to $8000," Mr McKoy
said.

"In the early 1990s our undercovers were buying ounces of heroin but now
they are offered blocks (354 grams) for between $50,000 and $80,000.

"This has effectively priced the drug squad out of the market because we
could not afford to make undercover buys on a regular basis."

Mr McKoy, who retired yesterday after 11 years in the drug squad, said the
first step to try to slow the flow of heroin into Australia was effective
barrier control.

"That is clearly a Federal Government responsibility," he said.

He said the Customs Service had a budget of $573 million but its priority
was revenue raising rather than drug detection.

"Perhaps the Customs budget should match that of the Victoria Police of
around $1 billion," he said.

Mr McKoy said many of the heroin addicts he had seen were, "well-educated
people who were brought up in loving family environments. No one is immune
from the problem.

"Heroin is making criminals out of people who would be otherwise would be
valuable members of society."

Health Minister John Thwaites said Mr McKoy's support for a supervised
injecting room should sway people who doubted the value of the initiative.

"I think it is significant that someone with his experience would express
these views," Mr Thwaites said. "The current system doesn't have all the
answers and we must be prepared to trial alternatives.