HEROIN A BIG WORRY AS DRUG USE SOARS

The use of hard drugs is on the rise in South Africa, with heroin use having
increased tenfold over the past two years in Cape Town and five-fold in
Gauteng.

Rob Boone, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's representative in South
Africa, briefed MPs yesterday on the latest consumption figures to coincide
with the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and
the launch of a global campaign on the theme "Let's talk about drugs".

The campaign aims to encourage parents, relatives, teachers and peers to
discuss the range of issues surrounding substance abuse with children and
young people.

Boone said dagga use had doubled since 1990 and was still the most common
drug used, followed by Mandrax.

"Heroin is our biggest concern and has increased significantly since 2000.

"A total of 7% of drug treatment patients in Gauteng and 8% in Cape Town
have identified heroin as their most common drug," he said.

Overall the use of heroin in South African had increased from 1% in 2001 to
5%.

Boone said the biggest growth in heroin use over the past two years had
occurred among black and coloured people, with an increase between 2001 and
2002 among coloured heroin patients in Cape Town from 2 to 22%.

In Gauteng the increase was mainly among blacks.

Most alarming was the prevalence of injection heroin use, with 34% of drug
patients in Cape Town and 48% in Gauteng admitting to this.

Boone said this was accompanied by sharing of needles and spreading of
HIV/Aids, while there was evidence that people were turning to prostitution
to maintain their drug habit.