ADDICTS CRAVE REASON FOR BAN

TONY was just 18 when he had his first hit of heroin, the first step
in a habit that over the past 30 years has cost him an average $200 a
day and three stints in prison.

The 45-year-old Perth man, who wanted to be identified only by his
first name, yesterday labelled the federal Government's refusal to
list Naltrexone, the heroin-craving suppressant, on its Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme as "baffling", and urged the Government to reconsider
to "stop the madness" that is heroin addiction.

"It just baffles me as to why they would do that. It just makes you
wonder what is really going on," he said.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee agreed last week to
list the controversial drug on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for
alcohol-dependent patients but ruled out a federal subsidy for heroin
addicts.

Naltrexone pioneer George O'Neil, who has treated more than 1800
heroin addicts, including Tony, at his detoxification clinic in Perth,
has labelled the decision as "disgraceful and unethical". It means
that from February, alcoholics will be able to buy the drug at $20 a
dose. Heroin addicts in most states except Western Australia, where
the drug treatment is funded by the state Government, will have to
continue to pay about $250 a dose or $2000 a year.

Dr O'Neil said the board's decision defied commonsense, since
Naltrexone had a near 100 per cent success rate when administered
properly to heroin addicts but was less potent when it came to alcoholics.

"If you are a mother or sister whose brother or son is addicted to
heroin, I can actually look (them) in the eye and say "if you go to
the trouble of grinding the tablets and taking it every day, every day
that it is given, you won't wake up with that craving'," Dr O'Neil
said.

"But if your brother is an alcoholic and takes the tablet every day he
is still quite likely to be drunk."

For Tony, the decision means people like him in other states will not
have the option to try the treatment that he believes has changed his
life.