BREAKING THE GRANDMOTHER OF ALL HABITS

"You can straighten up, and yet it takes one person to come from Sydney and
the town goes down," according to Ms Sharn Debrincat.

At 41, she is described as "the grandmother" of heroin users in Coffs
Harbour, where she has lived for 14 years. She is now on the methadone
program, drinking 90 millilitres daily. A heroin user since the age of 14,
she believes that unless she can dry out she faces either jail or death.

"It got really easy to get, I'd say three to four to five years ago. I guess
it's because people come here thinking they are going to dry out and get
away from it. They say they'll start a fresh life, but it takes one person
selling ...

"It's nearly doubled in the last four to five years, the number of people
using," said Ms Debrincat, who estimates there have been half a dozen
overdose deaths in Coffs Harbour in the past three years.

Ms Debrincat began her heroin habit as a teenager on the Central Coast. "I
was a little rich kid. I had money hanging out of my pockets. I guess the
dealers target the rich kids." Early last year, she told the Herald, she was
herself a supplier, selling $3,000 of heroin daily. "It wasn't all mine. I'd
probably make $500 in a day to pay for the habit."

Ms Debrincat blames the police for the heroin problem and says of their
targeting of small amounts of marijuana: "Why bother?"

"If they went for the dealers, they'd have them off the streets in a few
days ... The people doing heroin now in this town, one lot have been doing
it for 18 months and haven't even had a visit [from the police]. You can't
tell me every second junkie hasn't dropped their names."

She has served six years in jail for various offences.

She has three sons aged 16, 18 and 21. "The middle child is in jail with his
father."

Ask her what heroin has taken from her and she says: "My whole family. My
mum died when I was a kid. My dad doesn't want a bar of me. The welfare got
my kids and I'm an alcoholic."