COCAINE FLOOD RAISES FEARS OF HIV UPSURGE

Cocaine has shed its yuppie image of the 1980s, with an epidemic in its use
among heroin addicts, who are injecting the drug, threatening the stability
of HIV rates in Australia.

Cheaper and purer cocaine is flooding Sydney, where it is being sold like
heroin, breaking into new markets in the western suburbs where cocaine use
is just as common as in the more affluent eastern suburbs.

A survey entitled the Illicit Drug Reporting System, to be released today,
reveals that six in 10 heroin users surveyed have injected the drug in the
past six months, while one in five has injected cocaine daily - an
eight-fold increase from last year.

The IDRS, commissioned by the Federal Government and conducted by the
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, is a sentinel survey of 176
injecting drug users and 42 workers in the drug and alcohol field in NSW,
Victoria and South Australia to identify early trends in drug use.

Chief researcher Shane Darke said the results indicate the early stages of
a drug epidemic in Sydney, which would undoubtedly follow the same path as
heroin and spread to other States.

"The question is not, do we have an epidemic, we do; it's happening now.
The question is what do we do about it," he said.

Cocaine epidemics in other parts of the world have resulted in large
outbreaks of HIV among drug users, who tend to inject cocaine more
frequently than heroin, as often as every 10 or 15 minutes, and share
needles more often.

In Vancouver, where cocaine replaced heroin as the drug of choice among
injecting users, the prevalence of HIV rose from 2 per cent to 15 per cent
between 1994 and 1997, despite a well-established needle-exchange program.

Cocaine is a short-acting drug, while the effects of heroin last hours.
While a heroin user might inject one to three times a day, Dr Darke said
cocaine injectors use seven to 10 times a day and not uncommonly up to 20
times a day.

As well as the damage to veins inflicted by injecting more often, cocaine
causes more physical problems than heroin, destroying the heart and
vascular system and causing brain damage. Frequent use is also associated
with psychosis, which in a severe form is like paranoid schizophrenia.

The IDRS says cocaine prices in NSW have dropped to $200 a gram, but remain
steady at about $250 a gram in Victoria and South Australia, where it is
more difficult to obtain.

Marketing the drug like heroin has made cocaine more affordable, with
cocaine caps, sold like heroin as a single injection, now the most common
way to buy the drug.

Cocaine caps in NSW and South Australia cost about $50, but are yet to
appear in Victoria.

Dr Darke said Interpol believed that South American cocaine producers had
targeted Australia because the US market was virtually saturated.

He said there was an urgent need to educate users about the dangers of
cocaine and to explore drug therapies such as methadone for heroin
addiction.

Checked-by: derek rea