HEROIN DEATHS SOAR TO CRISIS LEVEL

NSW heroin overdose deaths have jumped by 134 per cent in Sydney and a
massive 230 per cent outside the metropolitan area over just five years, a
major new study released yesterday has found.

In the first long-term State-wide study of heroin fatalities, the National
Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has also found that more than one in three
deaths occur within two kilometres of Kings Cross and four kilometres of
Cabramatta.

"If you need any more proof that these are the biggest drug markets in NSW -
and Australia - this is it," said Dr Shane Darke, the senior lecturer with
the research centre who headed the study.

"You have 35 per cent of the deaths in these two little places, while 20 per
cent were in the bush. It's an extraordinary statistic," Dr Darke said.

Using coroners' and toxicological reports, the researchers found a
"substantial rise" in heroin-related fatalities in NSW from 152 deaths in
1992 to 226 in 1996. Seven out of 10 deaths were in Sydney.

The Illawarra, which accounted for 43 deaths - 5 per cent of all NSW
fatalities - has emerged as another "hot spot", suffering the greatest
number of heroin fatalities outside the capital. It outstripped the more
populous Hunter region, which had 35 deaths, according to the centre's
report, Heroin-Related Deaths in NSW 1992-1996.

"Like Newcastle, the Illawarra has high levels of unemployment and economic
deprivation, but the difference is it is so close to the heroin market in
Cabramatta," Dr Darke said.

In another significant finding, the study also reported "a large and
significant increase in the blood morphine concentrations" among those who
had died over the five years.

This indicated heroin purity had "increased by over half again", Dr Darke
said. However, multi-drug use was also a big factor, with three in four
having another drug in their system at the time of death.

"With 20 per cent pure heroin, if you get drunk, you may not take the same
risk as if you take 70 per cent heroin and get drunk. You have a greater
drug load on," he said.

The study's findings give policy planners another weapon to target the drug
problem by focusing on high-risk geographic areas, such as Wollongong and
the far North Coast, Dr Darke said.

Safe injecting rooms should especially be considered for Cabramatta, he
said. It is unique because almost two-thirds of those taking fatal heroin
overdoses there die in a public place, such as a street, park,
railway station or parked car.

"Appropriately staffed, such rooms would provide immediate assistance in
cases of overdose," the report says. "However, public acceptance of such a
facility is likely to be problematic." Distributing naloxone, a heroin
antidote used by ambulance officers, to users so friends and family could
revive them if they overdosed could be one solution in Kings Cross, Dr Darke
said. State-wide, six in 10 die in their own homes. In Kings Cross, 47 per
cent die at home, 25 per cent in a hotel room and the rest in public places.

Yet the study found only 15 per cent died instantly after heroin was
administered, and in eight out of 10 deaths no-one intervened.

The "typical" overdose victim in the study was a single, unemployed
Australian-born male aged about 30 and not in a drug treatment program.

Rise in fatal overdoses much steeper than that of suicides

The rise in heroin overdose fatalities among Australians aged 15 to 44 has
been much steeper than deaths from suicide in the past three decades,
according to research results released yesterday.

Comparing the two causes of death, which account for one-third of all deaths
for that age group, the head of the National Drug and Alcohol Research
Centre, Professor Wayne Hall, reports heroin overdoses now account for one
in 11 fatalities.

This compares with one in five deaths through suicide from 1964 to 1997, the
years surveyed.

"Public concern has prompted the national efforts to prevent suicide deaths
among young adults. There has not been asimilar concern about, nor effort to
prevent, opioid [heroin-related] overdose deaths,"Professor Hall's report says.

The report warns that the "unacceptable" heroin death toll is likely to
remain high, and could worsen because more people born since 1975 have taken
up using the drug.