MEDICARE REBATE FOR DRUG USERS

PRIME Minister John Howard is considering Medicare rebates for drug
treatment using Naltrexone after a Sydney trial showed almost 90 per
cent of heroin users were no longer drug dependent after six months.

In a trial of 202 patients at the private Rapid Detox Centre at
Liverpool, 92.3 per cent were no longer dependent on drugs after three
months. After six months the figure was 89.9 per cent.

Crime and unemployment rates also decreased during the trial, which
involved rehabilitation counselling and family input as well as medication.

Most of the 89.9 per cent no longer drug dependent after six months
were completely free of drugs. Some were "sporadic users" but not
considered drug dependent under the trial criteria.

The findings, obtained by The Daily Telegraph and audited by KPMG,
were presented to the PM's office yesterday.

Mr Howard's office is looking at options for fast-tracking the drug on
to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

But yesterday's meeting discussed $3000 Medicare rebates for a six-
month comprehensive treatment program using Naltrexone.

Mr Howard will make a major drugs strategy announcement later in the
week, including some federal funding for Naltrexone treatment.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley is also interested in the results and
his health spokeswoman Jenny Macklin will meet with doctors involved
in the trial today.

Rapid Detox Centre director Dr Siva Navaratnam yesterday said: "We've
asked them to put the whole program on Medicare, so you get the rapid
detox, you get Naltrexone for six months and you get all the
counselling for six months. It's a program, and you can only register
once."

"This is for someone who wants to be drug-free or drug-abstinent."

The results are based on patient self- assessment, and notes of
conversations between counsellors, the patient and their families.

Dr Jon Currie, director of Drug and Alcohol Research for Western
Sydney Area Health Service, is supervising the Naltrexone trial at
Westmead Hospital and said he was impressed.

"It's a program which can make a difference on a population level. It
can affect whole communities which is great," he said.