HEROIN DROUGHT SEES ADDCITS QUIT

UNABLE to obtain heroin because of an unprecedented "drought" of the drug,
Australian addicts are quitting or turning to alternatives that pose a
lower overdose risk, a new study shows.

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Council survey of illicit drug users
confirms that Australia is in the "unique" position of being the only
country in the developed world to be experiencing a heroin shortage.

While this had "positive consequences" in terms of lowering both the
overdose and drug use rate, the take-up of cocaine and a potent form of
crystalline amphetamine, known as ice or shabu, could have serious
implications for public health and law enforcement.

The study reveals that heroin prices doubled in Sydney since last
Christmas, when the shortage began. The NSW capital is thought to account
for about half the illegal drug market in Australia, with Melbourne
responsible for another 25 per cent.

A cap, or individual hit, of heroin that would have sold for $25 last year
now commanded at least $50 on the street in Sydney, and would be only 51
per cent pure, down from the pre-drought average of 62 per cent.

In Western Australia, the cost of a full gram of heroin had climbed from
$450 to $750.

"Australia's heroin drought is totally unique - never before has a modern
Western drug market experienced such a marked reduction in the supply of
heroin," said Libby Topp, co-ordinator of NDARC's Illicit Drug Reporting
System.

"And at the present time, only Australia is experiencing such a shortage."

The findings came as the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that
illicit drug use was costing the community $1.7 billion a year.

It found there are at least 74,000 dependent heroin users in Australia, and
that 39 per cent of people over 14 have used marijuana.

The ABS said 83,049 arrests for drug offences were made in 1999-2000, with
police seizing 4365kg of marijuana, 735kg of heroin, 382kg of
amphetamine-type substances and 839kg of cocaine. Stepped-up law en
forcement has been credited as one of the factors behind the heroin
shortage, along with an actual drought in Burma, which decimated that
country's opium crop, and a ban by Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime on
heroin production.

"We think ultimately it will be shown that there is no single factor, but a
complex interplay of factors that led to this shortage," Dr Topp told The
Australian.

The growing popularity of methamphetamines (ice/shabu) is reflected in
increased Customs seizures, up from just 971 grams in 1997-98, to 82,104
grams for 2000-01.

Dr Topp said higher cocaine usage was identified in NSW, ACT and
Queensland, while increased injection of benzodiazepines (such as Valium or
Normison) had emerged in South Australia and Victoria.