FEARS FOR DESPERATE ADDICTS WHO ARE INJECTING METHADONE

There is a booming black market in methadone in NSW and an epidemic of
people injecting the drug, which the State Government provides
strictly for oral consumption, says an organisation representing drug
users.

"There are large illicit methadone markets everywhere," said the
co-ordinator of the NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA), Ms Annie
Madden. "People can buy methadone as easily as they can buy heroin."

Injecting methadone which is designed to be drunk destroys veins and
puts users at risk of blood-borne infections.

Ms Madden called on the Government to consider distributing injectable
methadone instead.

In a statement to the Herald, the Health Department, which runs the
program providing methadone to 12,000 people, said: "NSW Health is
aware of instances of methadone injecting."

To discourage this harmful practice, on December 31 last year it was
reducing the maximum number of methadone take-away doses and
withdrawing from needle exchanges the large 20ml and 10ml syringes
used to inject the thick liquid.

There has been a more than three-fold increase in NSW people receiving
regular doses of methadone under a Government program over the past 11
years, according to Health Department figures. In 1987 there were
3,195 on the program and now there are 12,000, 13 per cent of them
outside Sydney.

Ms Madden said the black market had "grown and grown" in the past two
years, especially in rural areas, where heroin users were now
injecting methadone when heroin was scarce.

"We do not want to see the methadone program stopped, but there is
another big illicit market out there and it is not just used as a
recreational drug, it is the drug of choice for some," she said.

The aim of legally dispensing methadone - a liquid opiate substitute -
to be drunk on the spot through hospitals, clinics and pharmacies is
to help addicts beat the crime cycle and health risks associated with
heroin.

Ms Madden said that users could sell methadone because there were some
"takeaways".

She warned that the Health Department's decision to remove the larger
syringes from its 319 needle exchange outlets would be disastrous.

"The department is just creating a public health nightmare. HIV and
hepatitis C will just go through the roof. This is not the way to deal
with it."

An NUAA survey of 400 NSW methadone injectors found that 98 per cent
said they would not stop injecting but would re-use equipment, use
home-made syringes and even retrieve those used on horses from bins at
veterinary practices, Ms Madden said.

The Health Department statement said there was no evidence that
withdrawing the equipment would lead to HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks
and that conventional needles would still be available.

It said the NUAA survey was seriously flawed because the questions
were preceded by a statement that the results would be used to lobby
for a reversal of policy.

A senior rural police officer confirmed to the Herald that there was a
black market in methadone.

However, the commander of drugs trafficking and production with the
NSW Police Crime Agencies, Acting Superintendent Dennis O'Toole, said
his agency was not involved in any methadone investigations.

"I am not aware of a black market in methadone," he
said.