FEARS AS HEROIN DROUGHT EASES

Herion is back on the streets of Perth after a three-year dry
spell.

Health, drug treatment experts and police reported yesterday an
increase in availability of the drug in the past six months.

Dr George O'Neil, who has put opiate-blocking naltrexone implants in
981 West Australians since August 2000, said the number of people
attending his clinic in recent months for detoxification and implants
had doubled.

Three months ago he treated 10 patients a week but was now treating 18
to 20.

Dr O'Neil said most patients in the past two years had an addiction to
opiate derivatives such as morphine, but patients were now getting
addicted to heroin again.

Royal Perth Hospital toxicologist and emergency department specialist
Frank Daly confirmed that the Perth heroin shortage appeared to be
over.

He said two to three people a week were being treated for suspected
heroin overdose in the hospital's emergency department.

National Drug Research Institute senior research fellow Simon Lenton
said 100 Perth drug users who were part of a national six-monthly
survey reported a rise in availability of heroin in the past six months.

But Dr Lenton, Dr Daly and other experts agree that availability is
nowhere near 1997 to 2000 levels when heroin flooded Perth streets and
its purity was very high.

There were more than 80 heroin-related deaths in that boom time,
compared with about 10 such deaths last year.

Dr Lenton said the purity of heroin on the streets halved between 2001
and 2002 and reports from users for the last six months of 2003
indicated purity was still low.

Users seemed to be buying heroin in amounts of one quarter of a gram
at an average $150 - almost double the cost of the drug in New South
Wales.

Dr Lenton said it was impossible to predict whether there would be a
big rise in heroin use or an increase in overdoses.

"I can't predict what will happen to the death rate but people's
tolerance to heroin is lower and the risk of overdose is higher when
availability of the drug increases," he said.

WA Police Service organised crime Det-Supt Jim Migro said an increase
in the amount of heroin being seized by police indicated it was more
available. Just over half a kilogram of the drug was seized by
organised crime officers in 2002, compared with 2.3kg last year.

"The trend is that more heroin is appearing on the streets," Supt
Migro said.

Drug and Alcohol Office practice development director Steve Allsop
said calls to the agency's helpline indicated heroin was more
available though it had never completely disappeared.

Professor Allsop said calls to the helpline over heroin peaked in
1999, with 594 in the first three months. They then fell to a low of
64 between July and September 2002. The number of calls to the
helpline over heroin steadily increased last year.