COCAINE TIGHTENS GRIP ON OUR CITIES

COCAINE use is poised to reach epidemic proportions in Australia, with
potentially more serious health and social implications than heroin use.

Sydney is developing a cocaine market situated around the Kings Cross
district, which is likely to spread to the rest of the country, according
to researchers at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

These are among the findings of research by the centre conducted in Sydney,
Melbourne and Adelaide last year.

The new research - which compares drug use in the three cities for the
first time - provides a snapshot of their quite different drug scenes.

The first drug-trends study was conducted only in Sydney in 1996 and next
year it will be extended across the country.

The Drug Trends 1997 report shows cocaine use is increasing, particularly
in Sydney and Adelaide - where a gram of relatively pure cocaine costs $200
and $250 respectively.

In the past six months, more than one-third of drug users in Sydney and
Adelaide have used cocaine - most use the powdered form via injection - and
12 per cent of those in Melbourne have used it.

The findings have surprised the centre's researchers, who usually refrained
from commenting on cocaine because it had not been widely used here.

Shane Darke, co-author of the report and senior lecturer at the centre,
said that if a pattern of regular cocaine use emerged in Australia it had
"potentially greater implications than heroin", because it was more
expensive, people tended to use it more frequently and it was associated
with higher rates of HIV.

Dr Darke said there were also concerns about an increase in the use of
anti-depressants among drug-users - who faced greater risk of overdosing
when using these medications in conjunction with illicit drugs - and the
rise in the number of younger people and women smoking and injecting
heroin.

Injecting drug-users in Adelaide and Melbourne are older, more likely to be
male, better educated and less likely to be unemployed than their Sydney
counterparts, the report states.

Those in Adelaide and Melbourne are also more likely to begin their
drug-taking by injecting amphetamines, while Sydney users - particularly
those in the city's south-western suburbs - are more likely to start with
heroin.

While police activity, including drug charges and arrests, has increased in
some areas, most users say drugs remain easily available, Dr Darke said.

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug, having been used by about
one-third of the population, although heroin is the drug of choice for
injecting drug-users and its market is expanding, the report says.

Sydney has the purest and cheapest heroin. An individual foil-wrapped
package, called a cap, sells for $30 in Sydney, compared with $40 in
Melbourne and $50 in Adelaide.

The proportion of those smoking heroin rather than injecting appeared to be
rising - to about one in five in each city, Dr Darke said.

"A few years ago there wasn't anyone smoking heroin," he said.

"Smoking is a less frightening way for people to start using it, and
high-grade, cheaper heroin is much more amenable to smoking. Consequently
we are getting an influx of young users."

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)