ACTION ALARM AS HEROIN TOLL SOARS

Alarmed by a dramatic rise in the number of heroin overdose deaths, police
yesterday announced an unprecedented campaign to probe the victims'
personal circumstances.

Police yesterday revealed that each day over the past week heroin overdoses
killed two people in Melbourne.

Latest figures for Victoria show that heroin overdose deaths reached a
record of more than 250, a figure that prompted the latest campaign in
which drug squad investigators, the Victorian Institute of Forensic
Medicine and the coroner's office examine the victims' backgrounds.

The investigations began in September and police are looking at 25 deaths.
Fourteen investigations have been completed and drug squad teams are taking
two to three months to investigate each death.

The investigating teams want to ascertain how and why victims developed a
drug habit, whether there were factors in their early lives that may have
pushed them towards drugs and whether this information can be used to bring
about a drop in the growing death toll.

This is the first time in Victoria that police investigators and the
coroner's office have embarked on such a joint investigation.

Yesterday's disclosures coincided with the arrests of nine young men in
Footscray on Wednesday night. They have been charged with a range of
offences, including heroin trafficking and possession and possession of
stolen goods.

The arrests forced a significant reduction in Footscray's street-level
heroin trade, said Detective Senior Sergeant Graeme Nash, from Footscray CIB.

Last year fatal heroin overdoses were reported in 40 suburbs and regional
centres, said Detective Chief Inspector John McKoy from the drug squad. The
overdose locations showed they had spread beyond the usual hot spots of
StKilda, Dandenong and Melbourne's CBD and into regional centres such as
Geelong and Ballarat.

Mr McKoy said lower heroin prices, greater drug purity and increased supply
had caused a five-fold increase in the state's heroin deaths since 1991,
when 49 deaths were reported. Last year most overdose victims were
experienced users in their late 20s or early 30s.

Although emphasising that police did not encourage drug use, Mr McKoy said
many overdose deaths could be avoided if drug users took precautions such
as injecting drugs with other people. Heroin users or their companions
should call an ambulance immediately if they suspected an overdose, and
should not fear police prosecution.

``They are victims of the insidious heroin trade and we are trying to
protect them from the ultimate penalty they may pay,'' he said.

``Victoria Police is not in the habit of charging people who are using
heroin, in the absence of other criminal acts.''

Mr McKoy said he had no evidence to show the increase in heroin use had
produced a corresponding increase in crime, but he believed it was a
reasonable assumption to make.

The price of heroin had dropped over the past seven years, Mr McKoy said. A
20per cent increase in the price of wholesale heroin over the past few days
was yet to influence the price of street heroin.

The price rise showed national drug control strategies were beginning to
work, particularly after the seizure of 400kilograms of heroin off the New
South Wales coast last October, he said.

About seven years ago, street-level heroin was 10 per cent pure, Mr McKoy
said. Now 70 to 80per cent purity was common.