BUY YOUR SON MORE HEROIN

A HEROIN clinic lent a woman money to buy the drug for her son after they
could not fit him into their program.

Susan Momarovich and her son John, 21, approached the Drugstop
International clinic, based at Edgecliff, in late June and spent $6500 to
join its program in which addicts are administered the rapid detoxification
drug Naltrexrone.

However, a series of delays meant John could not be treated immediately.

When Mrs Momarovich asked the clinic what she should do, she said she was
told her son would have to keep using heroin until he could be treated.

After asking for money to buy drugs, the clinic lent her a total of $650,
paid into her bank account over three weeks.

"I had to go with my son to get heroin at Cabramatta, " Mrs Momarovich said
yesterday. "I was screaming and crying - I was saying 'I can't do this'."

The administration manager of the clinic, Marilyn Renel, confirmed the
money was paid to Mrs Momarovich.

"Her son is an addict," Ms Renel said. "He would have had to keep using up
until the moment he went in for treatment.

"Because she (Mrs Momarovich) had run out of money, she asked for more
money so she could have money to supply her son.

"We were very kind to put that money in her account.

"We could have refused her.

"Once you've been using for a few years - a few extra days or months - I
don't see it would make any difference anyway.

"We had a lot of other people waiting for treatment also and they never
complained."

The clinic paid Mrs Momarovich $300 on July 13, $200 on July 20 and $150
one week later.

After giving up waiting to get into the program, Mrs Momarovich withdrew
her money and placed John into another clinic where he started treatment
last Wednesday.

She said she was angry her son had to wait for treatment.

The Drugstop program treats six patients at a time in private hospitals at
weekends.

After John was booked in, he had to wait for a report into his suitability
for treatment to be returned. Then the program could not get beds at the
hospitals and Israeli doctors who supervise the treatment were not
immediately available to fly to Australia at short notice.

John was due to undergo treatment at the weekend.

Ms Renel said she regretted the problems but defended the program, saying
it had a 65 per cent success rate and had treated 3000 people in different
countries during the past 10 years.

"We are not some operation that has just been set up overnight, " she said.

The clinic has been operating for about two months in Sydney.

A Health Department spokeswoman said it was not appropriate to comment on a
program that was not run by the State. But the Government was exercising
extreme caution in its pre-trials of the treatment.

"It is something that requires constant supervision by a doctor," she said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski