DEATH BY HEROIN HIT A NEW HIGH

DEATHS from heroin overdoses have climbed more than 10 per cent to reach a
new high.

A study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre released today
shows 600 people between 15 and 44 died from heroin overdoses in 1997, up
from 526 deaths in the previous year.

NDARC head Wayne Hall said heroin overdoses were starting to rival suicide
deaths, equating to one-quarter of suicides among 15-to-24-year-olds and
one-third of suicides by 25-to-34-year-olds. In addition, about one in 10
suicides were attributed to opiates like heroin.

Professor Hall said the latest rise in deaths from heroin overdose
continued a trend that had been marching steadily upwards since 1991 -
apart from a short pause in 1996.

"This is not a problem developed over the past two or three years, it's
been developing and growing for 30-odd years when we first started to see
heroin overdoses as a result of illicit heroin use. It's just continued to
grow fairly steadily," he said.

Professor Hall called for a return to bipartisanship on drug issues, saying
the heroin death rate would continue to rise otherwise.

"It's not something we can turn around overnight in terms of interventions.
We might make a difference if we got more users into treatment, that would
be a wonderful way of reducing that risk."

A first step was to increase the number of places in treatment available,
which are notoriously scarce with some services reporting they turn away 30
people a day seeking treatment.

Professor Hall also advocated the "antidote" for heroin overdose, naloxone,
be more easily obtained to enable other drug users to administer it during
an overdose. About one in two heroin users had been present at an overdose
in the past year.

The largest proportion of deaths from heroin overdose continues to occur in
NSW followed by Western Australia, which has recorded one of the largest
increases to outstrip Victoria in the number of deaths per capita.

The death rate in 1997 was 83.6 for every million West Australians -
compared to 80.3 per million Victorians - from a base rate in 1988 about
half the then Victorian rate.

Professor Hall said the dramatic rise in Western Australia reflected that
State's opiate users, who had been using pharmaceuticals illegally
obtained, switching to heroin.

"There's a lot more heroin out and a lot more use. What we've seen over the
past two or three years is continuing in terms of ready availability, very
cheap and very pure heroin, not only in Sydney and Melbourne but also in
the smaller capital cities which haven't had as easy access in the past."

Men are over-represented, accounting for eight in 10 deaths from heroin
overdose with about four men dying for every woman reflecting their
tendency to take more risks than women.

The average age of overdose also has been consistently rising, with the
largest proportion of deaths occurring between 25 and 34 years despite
heroin users becoming younger.