HEROIN THERAPY GETS GREEN LIGHT

CLINICAL trials of the controversial heroin treatment drug Naltrexone
should start in Queensland within weeks after the State Government
yesterday announced an extra $1.5 million in drug and alcohol prevention
funding.

Health Minister Wendy Edmond said yesterday about $250,000 would be used to
pay for the Naltrexone trial's first 12 months.

Royal Brisbane and Prince Charles Hospitals' drug and alcohol services
director John Saunders said he was delighted with the announcement of the
funding.

"Now what we do is we have the protocols well worked out and it is a case
of getting things prepared to begin the treatment," he said.

"We are talking about in terms of weeks rather than months."

Ms Edmond said the trials to detoxify heroin-dependent patients would be
stringently controlled.

She said the trial would be a three-pronged process: the rapid
detoxification method using general anaesthetic, accelerated detoxification
using sedation, and a control group maintained on standard methadone
treatment.

She also said Naltrexone already had been available to general
practitioners to prescribe in Queensland since July 1 as a maintenance
alternative.

Professor Saunders agreed there already were a number of south-east
Queensland doctors prescribing Naltrexone but to do so they needed
authority from Canberra's Therapeutic Goods Administration and the
Queensland chief medical officer.

He said doctors had had mixed success with the drug.

Doctors already having success were those working with counsellors and
providing a support network, he said.

The national co-ordinator for drug treatment lobby group DrugAid, Pat
Assheton, said yesterday she was glad the trials were finally about to
start but questioned the delay.

"It will put some hope back into the community that the Government does
really care about people and maybe they are giving some inkling of
understanding," she said.

Ms Assheton said there was a wealth of evidence from other countries, where
the drug had been trialed and already was in widespread use, and she did
not understand why we had to still go through the trial process here.

"They are still putting us on hold," she said.

"It is a crumb being thrown out to us however grateful we are for that crumb."

Ms Edmond told the forum the Government was committed to meeting the drug
dependence problem head on.

"We are closely examining ways in which drug use and the problems
associated with drug use can best be addressed."

"This includes prevention and through the establishment of the crime
prevention committee, we are looking at ways of preventing drug use and
drug-related crime in the State."

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson