DRUGS TRADE THRIVING DESPITE RECORD HAULS

The price of illegal drugs is continuing to fall and the trade in them
is thriving, despite the Federal Government boasting of record
seizures of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.

A report by the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence says
"emerging data on drug trends indicates that illicit drug use in
Australia is increasing, drugs are becoming cheaper and more readily
available."

The bureau's 1998-99 illicit drugs report, released yesterday, also
calls for a uniform legislative approach across the country to tackle
the performance-enhancing drug problem.

It predicts that the Olympics will spark an increase in the
importation and manufacture of performance-enhancing and other illicit
drugs as criminal organisations seek to exploit the event.

The Federal Government last year indicated it would double the
penalties for the importation of performance-enhancing drugs including
steroids, human growth hormone and erythropoietin (EPO) to $100,000.

A spokesman for the Justice and Customs Minister, Senator Vanstone,
said the legislation, including the fines, was before Parliament and
had bipartisan support.

The drug report also found that Sydney remained the centre of much of
the drug trade, with the highest level of trafficking and the cheapest
heroin and cocaine.

It also found the age of heroin users and traffickers was falling,
with teenagers being recruited to move drugs around the country.

The bureau said the amount of heroin seized by law enforcement
agencies at the Customs border jumped from 138 kilograms in 1997-98 to
508 kilograms in 1998-99.

But included in that was a seizure of 390 kilograms in one operation
near Port Macquarie in October 1998.

The cocaine seizures, which rose from 78 to 292 kilograms in the same
period, also included a single haul of 225 kilograms at Coffs Harbour
in December 1998.

The report says the heroin seizures do not appear to have
significantly affected supplies, with the drug falling in price in
Sydney.

Senator Vanstone said the record hauls showed the success of the
Federal Government's $300 million national drug strategy, Tough on
Drugs, which was announced in 1997.

But she said it was impossible to say when there would be a turnaround
in the escalating illicit drug problem.

"What we need to recognise is that you can agree on a policy in
Canberra, you can get national agreement on it and we have that and
you can put it into place," she said. "But you can't expect a result
nationally in six months or 18 months ..."