SIX-WEEK WAIT FOR DETOX BEDS

HEROIN addicts who want to stop using the deadly drug must wait up to six
weeks for a detox bed.

The longest wait is for teenage males who make up the majority of hernia
users. Female addicts are more likely to wait about 10 days for a bed.

One Melbourne hospital asks addicts to phone daily to see if a bed is
available. Open Family youth worker Les Twentyman said even a few days' wait
was unacceptable.

"When they want to get off, they want to get off now. It has be virtually
immediate," he said.

Mr Twentyman said the lack of resources had forced him to take matters into
his own hands.

In the past few months he has taken 10 addicts to Victorian seaside towns
for eight-day detox programs. Nine of them have got off the drug.

"We take away their mobiles and take them out of town so the dealers can't
find them," he said. "The thing is, you can't access the detox programs and
we're the ones burying then, so we have to do it."