DEAD AT 23 AS BUSH TOLL RISES

They buried Rachel Fletcher, 23, yesterday in Dubbo, 400 kilometres by road
from where her fatal overdose of heroin began its journey into her veins.

Isolation was not a problem for the pushers who brought the heroin to the
Western Plains city (pop: 38,000), five hours by car or one hour by air from
drug markets at Cabramatta and Kings Cross.

And it wasn't difficult for Rachel, only five weeks out of jail, to get a deal.

"She made phone calls," said a girlfriend who injected with Rachel on that
fatal day.

And yesterday, while her family and 120 friends prayed for Rachel at St
Brigette's Catholic Church, the pushers were still dealing.

It's not just in the Big Smoke that the police have lost the war.

"Heroin's everywhere," said Dubbo mayor and MP Mr Tony McGrane, who last
November convened his own drug summit of community leaders after learning
that local ambulance officers were treating up to 24 heroin overdoses a month.

Officially, Rachel was Dubbo's fourth fatal overdose in two years but, Mr
McGrane says, the real figure is higher. "Just ask the ministers who bury them."

Rachel's mother, who has remarried and did not want her name reported, said
people were aware of the problem but were afraid of the dealers.

"Nobody must be too frightened to put the dealers in," she said. "You must
speak out on drugs. It's the only way this town is going to survive.

Rachel died last Thursday. She had returned home to live with her mother
after her release from Emu Plains prison where she served four months for
stealing from her employer, a baker. At her trial, she was unable to explain
how she spent the money. Tragically, her death suggested an answer.

Rachel survived an overdose last year. She took the fatal injection with a
girlfriend she had met in prison.

Mr McGrane said heroin in Dubbo cost the same as in Cabramatta, $20 to $25 a
"tab" - "the price of a carton of beer".

Rising heroin use has led to more crime. The Dubbo council area has NSW's
second highest break-and-enter rate, says the NSW Bureau of Crime
Statistics. It ranked 15th in 1996.

Rachel's mother said: "You can't tell me a neighbour doesn't know what's
going on next door. It's time for us all to act now and deal with it."