FLOOD OF COCAINE HITS PERTH STREETS

Cocaine, the deadly party drug of the rich, is flooding Perth's streets.

Welfare workers and users say they have never seen so much of the drug
- -- which is known to cause heart attacks and strokes -- in the city before.

Senior police are concerned about the huge injection of cocaine on to
the local market.

Police sources said the latest wave might be related to an
international operation intercepted by Australian Federal Police in
Albany last month.

Police and the Australian Customs Service seized 100kg of cocaine,
valued at $45 million, which would have sold as 227,000 street hits.

It was the largest seizure of cocaine in Australia since Operation
Feria in 2001, when 1000kg of cocaine was seized in WA.

"It used to be that it was easy to get speed (amphetamines) in Perth
but you had to know someone pretty serious to get coke," said WA
Substance Abuse Users Association manager Justin Woodruff.

"But now it's as if Perth's awash with it, like a big shipment has
come in the last two weeks and just gone everywhere.

"Now it's moving out into the broader amphetamine circle."

Several users said they were shocked at how easily they could buy lots
of what was once a drug for those with organised crime connections.

"You can get it for $500 a gram or if you know someone well you can
get it for $1000 an eight-ball (3.5g)," a user said.

The joint federal police and customs operation recovered 100kg of
cocaine on a beach in Albany after it was allegedly off-loaded from a
Brazilian ship. Three men were arrested.

Last financial year 119kg of cocaine was seized by the federal police.

Police alcohol and drug co-ordination unit spokesman Gill Wilson said
the current situation could be similar to that of a few months ago
when there was a big increase in heroin in Perth but supplies dried
out. Amphetamines were still the biggest drugs in Perth, he said.

Research released last year shattered the relatively harmless party
drug image of cocaine, the white crystalline powder which is often
snorted and is produced from the leaves of the South American coca
plant.

A National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report said the drug was
directly responsible for 126 deaths between 1993 and 2002 in NSW.

Overdoses contributed to another 22 deaths in the same period in NSW.

Most of those who died had injected, were male and in their 30s. Half
the dead were employed; many were professionals. Three-quarters were
married or in a relationship.

One of the authors of the report, Shane Darke, said cocaine was
poisonous to the heart and was associated strongly with blockages of
the coronary arteries and severe enlargement of the heart.

Signs of overdoses included heart palpitations, intense sweating, high
temperature, seizures, chest pain, tremors, severe nausea and vomiting.