TREATMENT OPTION FLAWED BY LONG WAITING LISTS

Keeping drug addicts out of jail by putting them into rehabilitation will
not be possible without a big increase in places for them, drug workers say.

Last week the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, and the Premiers agreed that such
scheme was good idea.

But drug workers say there are already huge waiting lists for addicts who
are willing to enter rehabilitation without more being diverted from the
criminal justice system.

On the NSW North Coast, one of the worst areas for drug abuse in rural
Australia, there are only three long-term rehabilitation centres.

The largest, the Buttery at Bangalow, near Byron Bay, has 24 beds and offers
an initial 10-week treatment program and an optional six-month extension.

Drug addiction, if treated as an illness, entails a long period of
convalescence.

The manager of the Buttery, Mr Barry Evans, said that in the short term,
residential drug rehabilitation was a much more cost-effective alternative
to jail and that in the long term the benefits were even greater.

"But at the moment there simply isn't the funding or the places for the
Government to begin wide-scale diversion of addicts from the jail system
into rehabilitation," Mr Evans said.

Last week Mr Howard promised an additional $50 million a year over four
years, which he said would provide up to 300,000 treatment places.

The Buttery costs around $450,000 a year to run ($250,000 from the State
Government and the rest from the unemployment and sickness benefits of its
clients) and caters for between 55 and 60 clients a year.

And, Mr Evans said, the Buttery was vastly under-serviced on that budget.

While governments may have some way to go with the sums and providing
additional places, administrators and clients agree that rehabilitation is
far, far better than jail.

A 36-year-old heroin addict of 15 years, Millie, has been at the Buttery for
almost eight months and during that time has not used drugs.

"Pushing people into rehabilitation instead of sending them to jail will
work for some but not for everyone," Millie said.

"What you find is that when you come into a place like this you are forced
to deal with all the other s--- in your life, and that is the biggest hurdle
to be overcome in staying off the 'gear' when you leave."