POT'S PERILS EXPOSED

A MAJOR campaign against marijuana use will form a key part of the response
to the state's crippling illicit drugs problem.

The campaign will concentrate heavily on the side-effects of the drug,
which is often the first step to heroin use.

Professor David Penington, who heads the expert committee on drug policy,
flagged the campaign as part of the overall response to the drugs crisis.

But he said many young people found attacks on marijuana were hypocritical,
given the effects of alcohol and tobacco on the collective health of the
state. Prof. Penington said the plan was to highlight the effects of
marijuana abuse, which include mental illness and the flow-on to heroin abuse.

He told the Herald Sun that some abusers were dropping out of employment
and school as well as suffering psychiatric disorders.

"When it is abused, people drop out of employment, they drop out of school
and so on," Prof. Penington said.

"The drug becomes the centre of their life."

Prof. Penington also said it was vital that the community understood the
drug could become the first step toward other drugs.

VicHealth chief executive Rob Moodie backed the plan, adding that the
approach to illegal drugs needed to be consistent with tobacco and alcohol.

Professor Penington also told the Herald Sun:

ABOUT 80 per cent of prisoners had used heroin and these cost the state
about $140 million a year to maintain.

THE heroin death toll which stands at 324 was likely to more than double in
the next five to 10 years.

ONLY up to 10 per cent of all imported heroin is caught by law enforcement
agencies.

HEROIN injection clinics would not resolve the heroin crisis but would
greatly affect the lives of the 40 per cent of street users.

POLICE had started discussing the implications of heroin injection
facilities with the drugs committee and he had been "heartened" by the
response.

A COMMITTEE issues paper would be released, probably next month, outlining
the direction of the committee.

THE number of younger teenagers using heroin has jumped markedly.

THE heroin antidote Buprenorphine could become the best heroin treatment,
despite the strong endorsement among some for the merits of Naltrexone.

Prof. Penington said that there was no simple answer to the problem.

He said policing had failed to stem the supply of heroin from Asia and
Australia faced being the major destination for the drug from South-East
Asia. It was important to open dialogue with the young.

"Certainly the anecdotal evidence I get again and again and again is that
13, 14 and 15-year-old children are starting to experience heroin as the
next step on from trying marijuana," he said.

"And we've seen a very big growth in the number of young people that are
being seen by the Youth Substance Abuse Service.

Drug education is now seen right across schools in Victoria.

"Still, despite that, we see the problems."