HEROIN TRIAL BACKED

A COMPELLING case for a heroin trial still existed once political
objections ceased, one of Australia's key drug treatment specialists said
yesterday.

Dr Alex Wodak, head of alcohol and drug treatment services at Sydney's St
Vincent's Hospital, said increasing interest in heroin trials stemmed
partly from growing acknowledgment that prohibition had failed.

Dr Wodak said there was a long history of treating heroin addiction by
prescribing morphine and heroin that could be injected in the UK, and even
in the US, although such trials had been poorly documented and
insufficiently evaluated.

He said a recent trial in Switzerland showed impressive health, social and
economic gains.

"It is hard to think of any new intervention in the illicit drug area in
the last quarter century that has shown such promise," he said in the
Medical Journal of Australia.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski