LEFT HIGH AND DRY

The War On Heroin Has Led To Fewer Junkies Dying On The Streets But,
Richard Yallop Reports, Many Are Losing Their Minds And Limbs Instead

MAY is one of the new casualties in the drugs war, which has moved fronts
since heroin users stopped dying daily in city alleyways. When the heroin
drought struck last December and the pure form of the drug all but
disappeared from Australia's streets, May's desperation to curb her
withdrawal symptoms drove her to start injecting Temazepam gel capsules --
Australia's favourite sleeping potion. Aged 17, she lies in a Melbourne
hospital today, at risk of losing her legs.

One side effect of injecting Temazepam is that the coating in which the
drug is contained can clog up the arteries, stopping circulation to limbs.
Gangrene can set in, leading to amputation. Between January and August this
year 537 Victorian pharmacies were broken into and in many cases thieves
just took Temazepam gel capsules.

In Sydney, another drug front has opened against cocaine -- not just social
sniffing by the rich and famous but injecting by hard-core addicts seeking
an alternative fix to heroin.

Increasingly, throughout Australia, amphetamines are filling the heroin
vacuum. While heroin tends to depress users, stimulants such as cocaine and
amphetamines can make them violent and paranoid. Says Gordian Fulde,
director of the emergency department at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital:
``We're seeing more and more amphetamine injectors being brought in the
backs of police vans, swinging and swearing, and it's awful.''

The switch to other illicit drugs that resulted from Australia's heroin
drought will be the subject of a national report by the Illicit Drug
Reporting System published next week. It will show that, although the
shortage has produced a drop-off in heroin use and a marked fall in the
number of overdose deaths, it has also resulted in desperate heroin users
turning to cocaine, amphetamines and benzodiazepines, the group of
sedatives that includes Temazepam and valium. It is also likely to spark a
heated debate on whether the heroin shortage vindicates the federal
Government's ``get tough on drugs'' policy -- with its emphasis on zero
tolerance and police and Customs action to reduce the supply of drugs -- or
whether the policy has simply diverted users to other dangerous drugs
without solving any of the underlying problems. Users may no longer be
losing their lives but, in some cases, they are losing fingers or their minds.

Ingrid, 29, a former dental nurse in Sydney (who wants her surname
withheld, like all the users interviewed by Inquirer) attests to the
increased violence on the streets. She lost three front teeth this year in
a fracas over a drug deal. ``People will do anything to get some decent
heroin,'' she says.

Some people blame the Taliban for all this. When the Taliban decreed that
Afghanistan's most recent opium harvest should not be gathered, it stopped
70per cent of the world's opium from reaching the international market.
With a drought during the opium-growing season in Burma and increased
police seizures here and overseas, it has resulted in a heroin drought on
the streets of Australia.

There are other theories -- that drug dealers have switched from heroin to
amphetamines because they are more profitable or that heroin dealers have
deliberately restricted supplies to raise prices. But whatever the cause,
it has resulted in near-panic among users. Searching for heroin, they often
find white powder adulterated with icing sugar, salt or cement, only 2 per
cent pure and up to four times more expensive.

Alison, 21, a user in Melbourne, says her friends have tried to get into a
methadone withdrawal program or have looked for alternatives: ``All of my
friends who used needles turned to benzos.'' She keeps buying heroin by
selling low-grade powder.

``I know the police thought they were successful, but the drought caused so
much crime. Everyone was planning robberies or setting people up.''

Peter, 29, a user, has gone back to burglaries and selling black-market
cigarettes. ``I'm on the front line and there has been a definite increase
in crime.''

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research last month published a
report on the heroin drought that found 56 per cent of addicts interviewed
responded to the shortage by making do with other drugs. That leaves 44 per
cent who have given up, either by simply going cold turkey or entering a
methadone program. The Salvation Army's Brian Watters, head of the
Australian National Council on Drugs, sees that as vindication of the
federal Government's get-tough policy, implemented in 1998. He points to
increased police activity and drug seizures.

``What we've seen is what many of us have been saying for a long time, that
the most important thing is [to] reduce the supply of drugs. It's true some
people are topping up with other drugs, but a large percentage are also
giving up.''

The overdose drop is most striking in Victoria, where the mortality rate
for the period from January to the end of October fell from 277 last year
to 33 this year. Watters says: ``People said, `Let's save lives', and we've
done that. We'll never completely stop the supply of drugs but we can
reduce them and get rid of the surrender mentality that there's nothing we
can do.''

Australia's police forces have had some notable successes. Victoria Police
Detective Superintendent David Newton says: ``In the past two years we
targeted and charged the 12 major heroin traffickers in Victoria.
Co-operation between enforcement agencies has also disrupted syndicates.''

Newton says supply has also been affected by the UN Drug Control Program,
which encourages farmers in South-East Asia to plant alternative crops to
opium.

But most doctors, drug counsellors and researchers reject the notion that
the drought vindicates government policy. Says John Fitzgerald, a senior
lecturer in criminology at the University of Melbourne: ``For people to
claim victory in the drug war is to lead the public astray. The biggest
message from the drought is that we have no control over the illicit drug
market. When heroin's not there, injecting still continues.''

Inner-Sydney doctor Andrew Byrne, who treats users, says enforcement has
had an effect, but it is not enough: ``Most politicians say the answer is
more prisons, but health officials must sit down and start talking about
the problems rationally.''

David Murray, head of Victoria's Youth Substance Abuse Service, has seen no
decrease in young people coming to his agency during the drought. He has
seen a change in supply to other drugs, but no change in the common factors
among those people seeking help. ``There is always a combination of
homelessness, unemployment and family neglect or disintegration. If the
Government wants to deal with drugs, they've got to look at economic
development and work with local communities. It won't be solved solely
through law enforcement.''

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research director Don Weatherburn asks
for objectivity from both sides in the debate:

``It's a continuing conflict between the treatment legalisers and the drug
warriors. I'd urge them to look at the hard data.

Neither does it show victory in the drugs war nor is it an unmitigated
disaster.''

As Heroin Evaporates, Crime Debate Blossoms

THE 2000 Drug Use Monitoring in Australia study provided the best
indication so far of the link between drug usage and crime.

Based on interviews in police watch-houses, it found that 82per cent of
those held for property offences were drug affected.

Of those detained for violent crimes, 65 per cent tested positive to any
drug use and 41 per cent tested positive to any drug excluding cannabis.

The heroin drought's effect on crime is hotly disputed.

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures show that although
there was a sharp rise in house burglaries in January-February this year,
when the drought first hit, the increase has not been maintained. Drug
users and workers give anecdotal evidence that there has been more crime
and violence.

But bureau director Don Weatherburn says their claims must be balanced
against the people who went off heroin, leading to reduced crime.

House break-ins in Victoria have risen at 3 per cent to 5per cent each
quarter for the past five years, but in this year's July-September quarter
they dropped to 11,028 from 12,291 in the same period last year.

Weatherburn warns: ``Watch out for the vested interests in this debate.
It's far from clear what the impact of the drought is on crime.''