HEROIN USERS GET YOUNGER

THE average age of a first-time heroin user has fallen to just 17, a
new drugs intelligence report reveals.

The Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence report also says
availability of amphetamines has increased substantially in Queensland
and New South Wales.

Queensland is named as a major manufacturing centre for the
drug.

The Australian Illicit Drug Report said the heroin problem was growing
among young people with the average age of a first-time heroin user
falling from 26 to 17 in the past 30 years.

The report said 95 "clandestine laboratories" were detected in
Australia in 1997-98, 37 more than the previous year. About 20 percent
of these were in Queensland.

A summary of the report, obtained by The Courier-Mail, revealed the
most common illegal drug produced in Australia was "speed".

The report said it was being manufactured in "boxed labs" - small,
portable containers fitted out with the necessary chemicals and
tools. The "boxed lab" was particularly popular in Queensland.

The report's findings coincide with a speech due today in Melbourne by
Prime Minister John Howard in which he is expected to announce another
$20 million for community service projects to tackle the growing drug
problem.

The report confirmed the devastating effect of drug abuse on the
community with one in five deaths estimated to be drug-related.

The report said 80 percent of heroin in Australia came from the Golden
Triangle of Thailand, Burma and Vietnam.

It also found the cost of heroin had remained stable across Australia
with a "cap" costing $20 on the streets of Cabramatta in Sydney, where
it was cheapest, and $80 in the Northern Territory.

There was concern that because the demand for cocaine in the United
States had stabilised, international trafficking organisations could
look to Australia to market the drug.