CANNABIS USERS CLOG PM'S DRUG RESCUE

More cannabis users than heroin addicts are likely to fill the 300,000
"treatment places" to be provided under the Prime Minister's $220 million
drugs campaign.

About two-thirds of drug users who could be diverted from the criminal
system and into treatment or education programs under Mr Howard's proposals
would be cannabis users, according to the Federal Health Department.

While Mr Howard's office would not comment last night, senior Government
sources strenuously denied attention would be given to cannabis users at the
expense of heroin addicts. They said it was not possible to say yet what
proportion of people being diverted to treatment would be cannabis users.

A Health Department spokeswoman gave the two-thirds figure when asked to
explain how the Government would provide the 300,000 places. She said
cannabis users were likely to be offered education rather than the more
costly intensive therapies available to heroin addicts.

A NSW Government spokeswoman said that, on the basis of the State's
experience, the estimate of 300,000 treatment places was "wildly
optimistic". The recently established Drug Court scheme in Sydney was
expected to provide 300 treatment places at a cost of $5.6 million.

According to a Federal Health Department survey last year, almost 18 per
cent of the population - 2.7 million people - said they had used cannabis in
the past 12 months, but only 0.7 per cent, or 112,600 people, had used heroin.

The director of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, Mr David
Crosbie, said he did not believe a significant reduction in cannabis use
could be achieved by referring users to counselling.

The Federal Government came under pressure yesterday on another aspect of
the drugs package - Mr Howard's promise to fast-track consideration of the
anti-addiction drug naltrexone for approval under the Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme.

That would make naltrexone, approved for prescription earlier this year at a
cost of about $200 a month, eligible for Commonwealth subsidies. But
according to drug workers and experts, inadequate supervision by doctors
prescribing naltrexone is already placing lives in danger.

Government warnings to doctors say there are dangers of "acute withdrawal"
if naltrexone is taken too quickly after stopping heroin. And for those on
naltrexone who relapse, a normal dose of heroin "may cause life-threatening
adverse effects", the official Australian Prescriber states.