HARD DRUGS, SOFT LAWS

HEROIN dealers are escaping jail in what angry police have branded
revolving-door justice. A Herald Sun investigation has found 60 per cent of
street dealers walked free from courts this year.

The average prison sentence for repeat heroin dealers - including some
offenders who have been given up to seven chances - was five months.

Three repeat dealers were recently spared jail, including a 31-year-old man
who got a suspended term despite being caught for the third time.

The findings have fuelled calls by frustrated city shopkeepers for a war
chest to help police clear drug dealers from the streets.

The retailers want Melbourne City Council to hand over to Victoria Police
$2million earmarked for marketing the city.

Peter Sheppard of the Central City Retailers Forum said: "We want a war on
dealers. Shoppers are harassed for money by addicts and syringes are left
in doorways and on footpaths."

The Herald Sun found the heaviest penalty handed down to more than 50
street-level dealers this year was 12 months' jail.

Just one first-time offender in another heroin-ravaged area was put behind
bars after he was caught dealing twice in a day.

"You are assured of getting off the first time, unless you've got about a
kilo of the stuff on you," a detective said.

Heroin has claimed 130 Victorian lives this year.

But the sentences handed down include:

12 MONTHS' jail to a man for his eighth heroin conviction.

THREE weeks to a dealer caught for the fourth time. He also had convictions
for burglary and car theft.

SIX months to a trafficker in court for the sixth time. He also had
convictions for theft and burglary.

Police - increasingly tired of arresting the same people - said dealers
continually told courts they were selling heroin to feed their habit. But
in cases uncovered by the Herald Sun, only a quarter of offenders who
escaped jail sentences were ordered to undertake rehabilitation.

Police say those sent to jail have little trouble buying heroin behind bars
and invariably start trading again as soon as they are released.

"Ninety per cent would be back dealing straight away," a detective said.

"Ten per cent try to help themselves.

"But the rest? No. It's so lucrative."

Another detective said he knew of heroin offenders who preferred to stay in
prison because of the easy availability of drugs.

Police Association assistant state secretary Sen-Sgt Paul Mullett said
street-level dealers were a vital cog in the heroin trade.

"These people are the link between the main traffickers and those who are
addicted," he said.

"If they are removed we will go a long way towards eliminating this problem.

"We recognise magistrates and judges are in possession of all the facts,
and that includes the presence of a plea. But these dealers are a scourge
on society."

Most dealers uncovered in the Herald Sun survey were males in their late
teens and 20s. Forty per cent were also charged with possessing the
proceeds of crime.

One man received a minimum nine months' jail after being caught with 45g of
heroin with an estimated street value of $17,000.

He admitted having made $6000 from dealing in the previous month and said
he spent most of the money on clothes and gambling.

Police usually spend at least six hours catching, processing, interviewing
and compiling briefs against each dealer - only to find that most are back
in business straight away.

In the worst heroin-afflicted suburbs, police estimate 70 per cent of all
their work is generated by the drug trade.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Rob Hulls said he could not comment
until the current review of sentencing was completed.