SWISS SNUB TO HOWARD

THE director of a Swiss heroin clinic has dismissed Prime Minister
John Howard's concerns over legalised injection rooms as
ill-informed.

According to the director of Switzerland's St Gallen heroin treatment
clinic, Roland Stahl, Australia's drug toll will continue to rise
unless states such as Victoria are given the chance to experiment with
radical treatments.

Speaking after the first day of an international conference on
heroin-assisted treatment for addicts, Mr Stahl said Australia was at
a critical juncture.

"The international community is aware of your debate and the many
powerful voices on either side," he said.

"It is difficult, but it is also an opportunity that should be
recognised. If you ask me whether prescription of heroin in
Switzerland has worked, I would say of course.

"The number of drug-related deaths has dropped, the incidence of
blood-borne disease has dropped and crime has dropped.

"If you ask whether it would work in Australia, I could not say, but
it is something that needs to he considered seriously."

Mr Stahl, whose clinic is one of 17 providing prescription heroin and
methadone to registered addicts, said it was "simple-minded" to
compare heroin with giving free drinks to an alcoholic.

"The fundamental difference is that alcohol is legal and heroin is
not. By providing prescription heroin, we can attract the client into
a safe environment where a whole range of vital treatments are available."

He said that in many cases, the combination of a small regular dose of
heroin and intensive counselling allowed clients to hold down
responsible jobs without their employer knowing of their addiction.

Earlier, the conference was told that latest unpublished results from
the Swiss trials showed significant gains in the welfare of addicts.

According to Professor Ambrose Uchtenhagen, preliminary data from 1998
suggested that addicts given regular, supervised doses of heroin made
significant gains in the first 18 months of treatment.

This include more stable housing and employment records, less use of
other illicit drugs and dramatically lower levels of debt.

He said blood-borne disease had been cut and police had reported a
drop in crime in the trial areas.

But gains made in the first 18 months were not significantly built on
and those who left the program and dropped out of follow-up therapy
often returned to illicit drug use, heavy debt and crime.

Delegates also heard new research had found that, unlike methadone,
even relatively small amounts of heroin could dramatically lower the
amount of oxygen in the brain.

And they were told the Swiss experience showed heroin prescription
should only be offered to hard-core users who had failed to control
their addiction through methadone treatment.

Switzerland first considered prescribing heroin after drug deaths
began to spiral in the 1980s.

In 1992, 419 people died from drug abuse and two years later, the
first heroin clinic opened.

Last year, the drug toll had fallen to 209.