DESPERATE PARENTS DOLING OUT HEROIN

A network of Sydney parents, terrified that their addicted children will
die alone in a laneway, are allowing heroin use at home - and in some cases
financing and doling out the drug in a bid to stabilise their children's
habit.

The families, who have counterparts and supporters in Brisbane, have
effectively created an underground drug resistance movement in a bid to
stop their children resorting to crime and prostitution to finance their
habits.

They argue that stabilising drug dependency and guaranteeing safety during
use allows parents and families to buy time, while a "zero tolerance"
approach is tantamount to "standing by and allowing them to die".

Their efforts have been revealed six days before the start of the NSW Drug
Summit, established by the Premier to draw out expert debate on law
reforms, treatment and rehabilitation.

Ms Elly Inta, a Sydney nurse and mother who has opened her home in the past
to addicted teenagers, says there are many families who have "taken things
into their own hands".

"We want to keep our kids alive," she said. "We don't want our children to
be taking drugs or illegal substances and we don't want to commit illegal
acts.

"But if that will keep our kids alive, there is no question that is what we
will do. As a mother, to me the instinct is to keep them alive."

Ms Inta is reluctant to talk about her personal experience in a bid to
protect her son's privacy. But she confirms that she allowed her home to be
used for drug use although she never procured drugs and purposely never
witnessed their injection.

"Only today, I was speaking to a group of people, there were about a dozen.
I explained to them how I coped at the time. Afterwards a woman came up to
me in tears saying that if only she had had the courage to do what we did,
her son might still be be alive."

Ms Pat Assheton, founder of Drug Aid, a similar family support organisation
in Brisbane, confirms that parents in Queensland are also taking matters
into their own hands.

Ms Assheton, whose son Guy died at 26, argues that keeping children alive
until their habit can be stabilised and rehabilitation becomes a realistic
option is an important part of a multi-faceted approach to the problem.

She argues that there must be boundaries for drug-dependent children and
that these must be realistic. "Once they are dependent, it becomes an acute
central nervous system disorder ... those who argue 'just say no' are
putting parents, children and siblings in a no-win situation," she said
yesterday. "Every day for the person, the morgue beckons.

"The only way to save a sibling when they are in acute dependency is to
make sure they are using safely. Now, I've been called civilly disobedient
but I am calling the Government morally disobedient and morally bankrupt."

Ms Assheton argues that once you work with the addicted child, stabilising
the habit is possible - reducing from $1,000 a day to $100 or even $50,
enough to at least diminish the craving.

After that, other approaches can be used to begin rehabilitation.

"The war in the household can then be stopped, the drug-dependent member
won't go into the toilet and die ... where his or her epitaph will have to
read, 'I died in a toilet'," she said.

"It takes needles out of the parks, it takes crime off the streets and you
allow the parents the right to care for their drug-dependent sick and injured.

"It's not a total solution but it's the only one we have until we get real
around this issue. Because after all our kids are only the target market
and end product of drug cartels and corrupt officials."

Mr Tony Trimingham, founder of Family Drug Support, says calls to the
Sydney-based support line reveal that many parents are not only to keeping
their children at home but, in some cases, accompanying them or financing
their heroin habit in a last-ditch attempt to protect them from viruses or
overdose.

"You see, we have many people who have lost children who would now say that
they wish they had done all of that," he said.