HEROIN DEATHS IN GRIM RISE

Heroin overdose deaths across Australia increased by 23 per cent in 1998,
figures released by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre showed
yesterday.

The number of overdose deaths in all states and territories rose to 737,
with NSW and Victoria accounting for 77.1 per cent (568) of all opiate
deaths in the country.

The findings, which were collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
and analysed by the centre, were presented yesterday by NDARC senior
lecturer Shane Darke.

"Heroin overdose is still primarily a male domain," Dr Darke said. "For
every female overdose death, there were four male deaths."

Dr Darke said this tied in closely with the centre's previous research,
which showed a typical heroin overdose victim was an unemployed male in his
30s who had been using the drug for 10 to 15 years.

"We must always bear in mind that the majority of these deaths involve
other drugs in addition to heroin, such as alcohol and benzodiazepines," Dr
Darke said.

He said the rate of overdose deaths was 43.5 per million in 1988, which had
almost doubled to a rate of 87.1 per million in 1998.

The figures show that while the public perception is that overdose deaths
involve adolescents, the average age of those who died in 1998 was 30.1.

The highest rate of overdose deaths, 116.1 per million, was in the 24-34
age group.

"Opiate overdose continues to be a major issue in Australia," Dr Darke
said. "In fact opiate overdose accounted for almost 9 per cent of all
deaths in the 15-44 age range."