DRUG TRIAL CALL ON OVERDOSES

Victoria's soaring drug overdose toll has sparked renewed calls to
test medically-prescribed heroin programs and safe injecting rooms for
heroin users.

Key drug and alcohol groups said yesterday it was time for more action
to halt drug deaths.

Yesterday, The Age revealed that up to 10,000 drug overdose victims
were treated in Victorian hospitals each year.

Hospital emergency department doctors fear the overdose tally is
rising, and say most of these overdoses involve legal and prescription
drugs.

New figures from the Metropolitan Ambulance Service also reveal how
dramatically the number of drug overdoses has increased recently.

Last month, the ambulance service attended an average 31 drug
overdoses (including alcohol) per day. In January 1997 Melbourne
ambulances attended an average of only 15.5 overdoses daily.

Mr Bill Stronach, the chief executive officer of the Australian Drug
Foundation, said health authorities had to adopt alternative
strategies to tackle deaths and problems associated with illicit drug
use - ``the ones we are all a bit scared of, like safe injecting
places, like prescribing heroin for users''.

He also suggested ``beefing up the methadone program and beefing up
the needle and syringe exchange programs because they've been shown to
be effective''.

Mr Stronach said overseas heroin trials had been shown to reduce
crime, stabilise people and get them back to work.

However, it was also important to continue drug education and
information programs and to crack down on drug traffickers, he said.

Mr David Crosbie, the chief executive officer of the Alcohol and Other
Drugs Council of Australia, said researchers knew much about the
circumstances of heroin overdoses.

For instance, about 30per cent of fatal heroin overdoses involved
benzodiazepines, and another 30per cent involved alcohol, he said.
What was needed was greater resources to fight the drug problem and
more political will, he said.

``We need to reconsider a range of options including safe injecting
rooms, prescribed heroin for dependent addicts, and extending
treatment and prevention programs,'' he said.

A month ago the chief executive officer of VicHealth, Dr Rob Moodie,
made a similar call.

Professor David Penington, the man who chaired the Premier's Drug
Advisory Council inquiry, said there was no simple solution to the
drug overdose problem. He said there was a distinction between people
who abused prescription drugs and illicit drugs.

A State Government spokeswoman said it had adopted one of the most
comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approaches to the drugs issue in
the country. ``We don't believe we can stop drug abuse ... (but) we
can minimise the harm of drug abuse.''

The Government was spending $100million over four years on the Turning
the Tide Strategy to limit the harm from drugs, she said.