DRUG-RELATED PARAMEDIC CALLOUTS UP 15 PER CENT

Paramedics are treating more than 30 Queenslanders a day for
drug-related conditions including overdoses, a rise of 15 per cent in
two years. New figures reveal that ambulance officers across the
state attended 11,429 cases involving drug-affected people last year.

Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said the figures were proof the
Government was not doing enough to tackle the growing problem of
drugs in the community.

He called for a review of drug awareness campaigns to ensure they
were targeting the problem.

"We've known for years that Queensland is the amphetamine capital of
Australia and these figures show the problem is getting worse and yet
this government has sat on its hands," Mr Springborg said.

"We need zero tolerance to drugs, harsher penalties for people caught
trafficking and supplying drugs, and money spent on better drug
awareness campaigns rather than on ads promoting the
Government."

But Police Minister Judy Spence rejected the Opposition's suggestion
the Government was soft on drugs.

Ms Spence said about 10 per cent of prisoners in Queensland were
jailed for drug offences. "The Government and the Queensland Police
Service are continually increasing our resources and arrests with
respect to drugs, and Queensland Health run continuous drug awareness
campaigns," she said.

"Parents and indeed all members of the community need to join with
government to help society understand that far from being harmless
and recreational, illicit and illegal drugs can lead to hefty fines,
prison sentences and in the cases of drug use, death."

The war of words follows the tragic case of Rosie Bebendorf, 28, who
died on New Year's Day after taking two ecstasy tablets allegedly
bought from a Fortitude Valley nightclub.

Her grieving parents have pleaded with young people to stay away from
party drugs.

Kroy Day of the union representing ambulance workers said the latest
figures supported anecdotal evidence that paramedics were dealing
with more drug cases.

But he said drug and alcohol abuse had always been part of their
workload, and paramedics were more concerned about the growing level
of violence associated with drug use.

"The Government has increased penalties for people who assault
officers but what we don't want is people to be deterred from calling
us (to cases involving drugs)," he said.

"We're not interested in being a police force. They will only be
called if there is a safety issue for our members."

The latest figures, obtained by the Opposition through a Question on
Notice, revealed paramedics attended 11,429 drug-related cases
including overdoses in 2007-08, compared to 11,214 the previous year
and 9907 in 2005-06.