ACT DRUG PROFILE: YOUNGER, HARDER

Canberra's worsening illicit-drug scene - 30 per cent of new heroin users
are now aged under 18, and hepatitis C is widespread - is the theme of an
address in Melbourne today by ACT Health Minister Michael Moore.

Mr Moore will outline the ACT Government's proposals to introduce safe
injecting clinics in Canberra to alleviate chronic health risks to injecting
drug users.

Under-18s would be allowed to use the clinics, which Mr Moore said would
lead also to a reduction in opportunistic property crime by people under the
influence of drugs.

Mr Moore is at Australia's First International Conference on Drugs and Young
People, of more than 600 youth affairs, education, health, welfare, justice
and law-enforcement delegates.

Mr Moore said hepatitis C had been reported first as a virus in 1989. Since
then, there had been 1554 notifications in Canberra.

"The true prevalance in the ACT is likely to be much higher than this, since
many people with hepatitis C do not have symptoms and/or have not been
tested." Mr Moore said.

He revealed also a disturbing recent increase in hepatitis A.

The ACT Drug Referral and Information Centre had reported a 12 per cent
increase in heroin users from 1995-96 to 1996-97.

The number of syringes distributed by the ACT Needle Exchange Program had
risen from 100,000 in 1991-92 to 500,000 in 1997-98.

Mr Moore said drug and welfare support agencies in Canberra had reported a
new client profile of young intravenous drug users. "The injectors they are
now seeing are younger, take greater risks, have multiple problems, are more
likely to be hepatitis infected and present as depressed, anxious and
stressed," he said.

"They are also likely to be injecting a broader range of substances,
including amphetamines and steroids."

Almost all juveniles appearing before ACT courts had drug or alcohol
problems, and about 80 per cent of new heroin users dealt with by the
needle-exchange program were under 18.

He blamed much of the increase on the pyramid structure of the illicit-drug
market, saying young people were at the base - the most vulnerable, the most
dispossessed and the most powerless in the system.

The target age group for Canberra's safe injecting clinics was under 25,
catering to about 200 people a day. Mr Moore said it would be farcical to
try to ban under-18s from the clinics on the basis of age, since it was
"absolutely essential" they had access to such services.

He said the ACT recognised that illicit-drug use must be addressed in a
consistent, coordinated and integrated way across all sectors of the
community. This allowed for a range of strategies, including demand
reduction, supply control, abstinence, problem prevention, rehabilitation,
education and information.

Mr Moore said Canberra was not "bogged down in tradition", and its health
and welfare systems were flexible enough to try new ideas.

Checked-by: Don Beck