MANY ADDICTS FIND NO ROOM AT THE DROP-IN

Demand for help from drug addicts was so huge, the Salvation Army said
yesterday, it could double the number of beds available and fill them
immediately.

The chairman of the Prime Minister's Australian National Council on
Drugs, Major Brian Watters, said the Salvation Army turned 30 addicts
away from the 120-bed William Booth centre in Surry Hills every week
because there was no room.

"Demand is even greater than this," he said. "People get to know there
are not enough beds and don't bother trying."

The Salvation Army is the largest provider of drug rehabilitation and
detoxification services in NSW.

It and other drug and AIDS prevention groups yesterday called on the
State Government to offer more treatment and rehabilitation services
at needle exchange clinics.

Needle exchange workers should be trained to counsel addicts, not just
hand out clean syringes, Major Watters said.

"The Government is failing in its duty of care if it simply hands out
needles, particularly to children," he said.

The guidelines for staff prohibit them initiating counselling in case
the addicts do not return. "I think that's a fairly negative
approach," Major Watters said.

Nathan, 22, who became addicted to heroin at 14 and is in a Salvation
Army rehabilitation program, said he would not have listened to a
health worker at the height of his addiction.

"In addiction, when I was young, at first I didn't want any help and I
would push it away," he said. "But I know near the end of my using
years I would do anything to get help."

His advice to today's young addicts: "All I can do is turn around and
say to them, it's going to kill you."

Mr Paul Dillon, the information manager of National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre, said the age of initiation to heroin injection
appeared to be dropping in NSW.

The age of first trying heroin was 20 four years ago, but last year it
was 16.

Mr Dillon warned the Government that withholding needles from young
people was not the answer, "because young people take far more risks
than older users".