Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia Website: http://www.theage.com.au/ Author: Chloe Saltau Bookmark: additional articles on heroin are available at http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm and articles on drug treatment are available at http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm GRATEFUL FATHER SUBSIDISES 'CURE' FOR ADDICTS Peter White's daughter was lucky - as lucky as a heroin user can be, that is. Her father had the money and the inclination to pay for her rapid detoxification and Naltrexone withdrawal treatment in a private clinic - a bill that usually totals between $4000 and $6000. When he learnt of his daughter's addiction, Mr White took her to Perth, where George O'Neill, the pioneer of the treatment in Australia, sedated her, flushed her system of heroin and administered the opioid antagonist drug Naltrexone to block the effects of heroin. She continued with a daily Naltrexone tablet and now, at 18 and nearly a year down the track, Mr White said, "she has her life back". It wasn't as easy as that, of course, and Mr White does not pretend that Naltrexone is the answer to the seemingly intractable heroin problem. However, inspired by Dr O'Neill, the retired Melbourne businessman this year paid $525,000 for a clinic in St Kilda and has begun heavily subsidising the price of Naltrexone treatment for heroin users who couldn't ordinarily afford it. The clinic opened a week ago and its doctor, Simon Rose, is starting to see patients. "George O'Neill's clinic has got an aura of optimism about it, which is what we want to engender here," Mr White said. He also wants the Federal Government to add Naltrexone to its pharmaceutical benefits list for use by heroin addicts (at present it is subsidised to treat only alcoholism), and for the Victorian Government to pour less money and energy into its proposed trial of supervised injecting rooms and more into drug detoxification and rehabilitation services like theirs. In the meantime, Mr White - a former business figure in the road transport industry - is making the initial treatment available to heroin addicts for $200. The only requirement is that they have a carer - whether it be a family member or a voluntary worker - to watch over the recovery process in the difficult months afterwards. "If they haven't got a carer then we'll help them find one," he said. The new clinic also has the support of Baptist minister Tim Costello, who urged the State Government to follow the lead set in New South Wales and Western Australia by supporting clinical trials of Naltrexone treatment in detoxification centres. "We had here in our back lane (near the Collins Street Baptist Church) yesterday a death from heroin ... and it just brings home the fact that people are dying virtually daily while we still have nearly a two-week wait for (drug treatment) beds," Mr Costello said. He said it was crucial that treatments such as Naltrexone were available right at the "whimsical moment" when addicts decided they wanted help, and that the treatment was affordable. Dr Rose became committed to providing detoxification cheaply "for everyone" when he realised the high rate of heroin addiction among sex workers was not being tackled because treatment was out of their reach. "The main aim of the clinic is to make it available to everybody and to optimise the post-detox treatment," he said. Mr White said the clinic was developing links with church and welfare agencies that could help users to tackle the reasons, such as low self-esteem, that made them start using heroin, and hoped other businesses would help them keep the treatment affordable. "In Victoria there has been a lot of talk about (supervised) injection but that doesn't get them off (heroin)," he said. "There has been one death every day in July and if that continues then we haven't achieved anything." He said Dr O'Neill's rapid detoxification program in Perth had a 70 per cent success rate. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder