PARENTS BUY DRUGS FOR ADDICTED KIDS

PARENTS of drug addicts are buying heroin from dealers in a desperate
bid to protect their children from the drug scene.

Up to 70percent of parents of drug addicts have assisted their
children in obtaining drugs, according to a counsellor for addicts.

The Courier-Mail spoke to a father last night who said he had bought
heroin for his son on several occasions to keep him out of the drug
scene while he was trying to break the habit.

The revelations came as drug campaigner Pat Assheton admitted she had
supervised young people injecting heroin.

Ms Assheton, national co-ordinator of DrugAid, said "hundreds" of
parents in Queensland had done the same to protect children.

Ms Assheton was speaking out as the push for safe injecting rooms for
addicts gained momentum yesterday. Police Minister Tom Barton said
there had been anecdotal evidence to suggest that parents were
involved in illegal activities as a desperate measure to protect their
children.

"I could understand a parent who's lost a child taking the action to
make sure that they don't lose another child," Mr Barton said.

"But they do need to understand that it is currently in breach of the
laws."

Police said their focus would remain on dealers and the people who
profited from the hardship of drug users. Drug counsellor Tua Toki,
who runs two home-rehabilitation facilities in Brisbane, said at
least 70percent of the parents who had come to him for help had either
bought drugs for their children or had knowingly given them money for
drugs.

"The main reason they would do it is to keep them out of doing
activities that could put them in jail and could surface their problem
to a point where society would outcast them," Mr Toki said.

Ms Assheton said parents learnt to pay for their child's drug
addiction after seeing them overdose.

"It's a cycle of fear when they go, elation when they return alive and
devastation while they are forced to witness and endure their sons'
and daughters' crime, prostitution and drug dealing in order to buy
their drugs," Ms Assheton said.

Anti-drugs campaigner Angela Wood, whose daughter Anna died after
taking an Ecstasy tablet, said she sympathised with parents who were
trying to keep their children's drug use safe but said it was not a
long-term solution.

Meanwhile, State Government plans to establish specialised courts and
boot camps for drug offenders is under threat because of a lack of
funding.

Premier Peter Beattie yesterday said the Federal Government's refusal
to provide extra funding had put both measures in doubt.

The Commonwealth last month allocated a further $40million for
Queensland in its fight against drug abuse.

Prime Minister John Howard said the package would revolve around
education and legal changes to force addicts involved in crime receive
medical treatment.

But Mr Beattie said no extra funding had been set aside.