HEROIN DROUGHT GIVES RARE CHANCE TO EVALUATE DRUG'S IMPACT

When supply is short, crime goes up but overdoses plummet. So who are we
trying to protect? Paola Totaro writes.

It is indisputable: some crimes rise when the price of heroin goes up, or
when the drug is in short supply.

In NSW it is armed robberies, which rose 34 per cent in the two years to
December 2001 - coinciding neatly with the heroin shortage that began just
after Christmas 2000 and saw the cost of a gram of heroin skyrocket from
$218 to $381.

The flip side of the drought is equally telling: heroin overdoses dropped
dramatically - in Cabramatta, the rate fell 74 per cent between June 2000
and July 2001.

Nobody knows exactly what caused the recent shortage. It could have been
the big seizures and the arrest of distribution figures in the same period,
or it could have been low rainfall in opium-growing areas affecting crops.
Probably, the shortage was a combination of the two.

But the drought provided a unique opportunity for drug and crime
researchers to examine what happens when heroin supplies are dramatically
reduced.

What has emerged more clearly than ever is the dilemma faced by
policy-makers and communities: when we talk about harm reduction, harm
reduction for who?

In Sydney 880 men, women or children in four big communities - Blacktown,
Canterbury-Bankstown, St George-Sutherland and Central Western Sydney -
endured the trauma of a threat with a gun, or worse.

On the other hand, drug-related deaths in NSW fell from a high of 65 in
April 1999 to a low of 11 by October last year. Nationally, the drop in
fatal heroin overdoses plunged from 345 in 1999-2000 to 265 in 2000/01.

So what approach should we take?

Don Weatherburn, the director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and
Research, argues that weighing up the costs and benefits of "the many
policy levers" in the drugs arena is the debate we are all avoiding and
should be having.

But he joins the growing chorus of experts convinced that a small,
nationally funded heroin trial is overdue.