HEROIN BOOM IN THE COUNTRY

A statewide study has found an increase in heroin use in regional and rural
Victoria.

The chairman of the Victorian Rural Heroin and Methadone Project, Dr Rodger
Brough, said evidence tabled in the report Between a Rock and a Hard Place
showed that more country people were involved in methadone programs and
needle exchanges.

"This would seem to indicate a growth in the number of people with heroin
addictions in country Victoria," Dr Brough said.

Doctors and pharmacists in regional Victoria were interviewed, with most
saying they were treating more people with drug problems.

Dr Brough, drug and alcohol physician for the Southern Healthcare Network
in Warrnambool, has treated drug-dependent patients in the south-west for
almost 15 years.

For most of that time he has had between 10 and 20 patients a year
receiving methadone treatment. But since 1997 that number has risen to
between 60 and 80.

"In the first 10 years I was working here we had very few deaths from
heroin overdoses but in the past few years we've seen a lot more," he said.

"I know from clients that there is no longer a need for them to go to
Melbourne to get heroin because it is available here. It has certainly
become a more obvious problem."

To counter deaths from heroin overdoses in Melbourne, the Premier, Mr Steve
Bracks, has appointed Professor David Penington to head the committee
overseeing the setting up of five injecting rooms.

Although Dr Brough applauds the Government's intentions, he said the
committee should act on the number of overdoses in country Victoria.

"I don't think safe injecting rooms are going to be a successful option in
regional and rural Victoria," he said.

"Safe injecting houses are going to be a lot harder to sell politically in
rural Victoria and I would argue that we need to look at other strategies
to slow the overdose rate," he said.

One strategy on which he would like to see more debate is the issuing of
Naloxone to known heroin addicts in rural Victoria. Naloxone is the
reversal agent of heroin and is administered by drug paramedics to overdose
victims.

Dr Brough also believes that injecting rooms would not work in rural areas
because of the difficulty in accessing them anonymously. He said heroin
addicts in metropolitan areas could visit the injecting rooms without fear
of being discovered by people they know, but addicts in regional Victoria
would find it impossible to use the injecting rooms without being seen.

"Anonymity is such a big issue for regional Victoria. Even the drug use
seems to be hidden. We don't have an equivalent to Smith Street ... the
actual selling of the drugs might not be visible in country areas but the
effects are there," he said.