JUDICIAL CONCERN AT HEROIN THERAPY

The head of Australia's first drug court yesterday expressed concern
about the use of the controversial heroin replacement drug naltrexone
in treating addicts.

Judge Gay Murrell. a senior judge with the New South Wales Drug Court,
said addicts who were prescribed the drug needed a strong support
network because it lowered their tolerance to heroin.

``Naltrexone is a potentially dangerous treatment because if people
are getting naltrexone their tolerance to heroin drops dramatically,''
Judge Murrell told a Women Lawyers' Association breakfast in Sydney.

``If they then use heroin out in the community they're at risk of
death, so we have to be very careful when placing people on
naltrexone.''

The drug court had placed one person on naltrexone, which she
described as a ``halfway house'' between abstinence and addiction
because it did not generate dependency.

She said the court, which offers drug-addicted criminals the option of
undergoing rehabilitation instead of going to jail, had placed 36
people referred to it in one-year treatment programs.

She said the failure of methadone programs was often reflected in the
people coming before her court.

``Perhaps they are not being adequately supervised and receiving
incorrect doses of methadone or perhaps it's because their real
problems ... are not being adequately addressed,'' Judge Murrell said.

``A lot of people who are failing on methadone programs before they
come to court now have a good prospect of succeeding on a methadone
program where there's also a lot of addict support offered.''

She said once people realised the court was there to offer support,
rather than solely to penalise, they started reporting their own drug
use.