ALARM AS HEROIN SHORTAGE TURNS USERS TO SPEED

A nationwide shortage of heroin has sparked a shift in the illegal drug
market, prompting injecting drug users to turn to speed.

Use of crystalline methamphetamine, known as ice or shabu, rose in every
state and territory over the past year.

Of the 961 users surveyed, 53 per cent used the drug this year compared
with 15 per cent in 2000, data from the Illicit Drug Reporting System,
which will be publicly released today, shows.

But in NSW the increase was not as great as nationally, with the state
confirming its reputation as the number one cocaine market.

The figures show wider and more frequent use of cocaine among injecting
users in NSW this year. The number who listed it as their drug of choice
rose from 10 to 29 per cent in a year.

The figures come after it was revealed that more cocaine than heroin was
injected at the medically supervised injecting centre at Kings Cross during
its first six months of operation.

Associate Professor Shane Darke, from the National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre, said a shift to cocaine and more pure forms of speed,
including ice, came in a year where heroin became more expensive and less
available across the country.

"It's no coincidence that the increased use of ice and cocaine came in
concurrence with the reduction of heroin," he said.

The data confirms fears of drug experts about the increases in the use of
different forms of methamphetamines - the strongest type of amphetamine -
including ice, which can cause adverse pyschological effects such as
paranoia, aggression and even psychotic breakdown.

Professor Darke said: "Treatment agencies are telling us that they are
seeing people coming in with the sorts of paranoia and problems that should
take years of regular amphetamine powder use to develop. With ice they have
got them much sooner."

The increasing use of the drug, which is mainly imported, comes as seizures
by Customs have soared. A total of 82 kilograms of ice was seized in the
last financial year compared with 971 grams in 1997/98.

But ice is still proving highly profitable, with evidence the drug is
selling for up to five times as much as other forms of speed.

The Illicit Drug Reporting System, co-ordinated by the National Drug and
Alcohol Research Centre and funded by the Federal Health Department,
provides an annual snapshot of the four main drug markets: amphetamines,
heroin, cocaine and cannabis.

Among its latest findings were:

* A continuing drop in the number of fatal heroin overdoses which went from
345 in 1999/2000 to 265 in 2000/01.

* Heroin remains the cheapest and most pure in NSW, despite rising around
$100 to $320 a gram. Heroin shortages were reported everywhere except South
Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

* Cannabis remained easy to obtain in all states and territories, with
price falls in South Australia, Victoria, the ACT, Western Australia and
Tasmania.

* Cocaine is the cheapest in the ACT at $165 a gram.

In a bid to tackle the manufacture of amphetamines in NSW, the State
Government has tightened restrictions on the sale of cold and flu medicines
such as Sudafed, which contain pseudoephedrine.