Pubdate: Tue, 06 Jun 2000
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 2000
Contact:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
Author: Mark Buttler And Peter Coster
Bookmark: additional articles on heroin are available at 
http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm

HARD DRUGS, SOFT LAWS

HEROIN dealers are escaping jail in what angry police have branded 
revolving-door justice. A Herald Sun investigation has found 60 per cent of 
street dealers walked free from courts this year.

The average prison sentence for repeat heroin dealers - including some 
offenders who have been given up to seven chances - was five months.

Three repeat dealers were recently spared jail, including a 31-year-old man 
who got a suspended term despite being caught for the third time.

The findings have fuelled calls by frustrated city shopkeepers for a war 
chest to help police clear drug dealers from the streets.

The retailers want Melbourne City Council to hand over to Victoria Police 
$2million earmarked for marketing the city.

Peter Sheppard of the Central City Retailers Forum said: "We want a war on 
dealers. Shoppers are harassed for money by addicts and syringes are left 
in doorways and on footpaths."

The Herald Sun found the heaviest penalty handed down to more than 50 
street-level dealers this year was 12 months' jail.

Just one first-time offender in another heroin-ravaged area was put behind 
bars after he was caught dealing twice in a day.

"You are assured of getting off the first time, unless you've got about a 
kilo of the stuff on you," a detective said.

Heroin has claimed 130 Victorian lives this year.

But the sentences handed down include:

12 MONTHS' jail to a man for his eighth heroin conviction.

THREE weeks to a dealer caught for the fourth time. He also had convictions 
for burglary and car theft.

SIX months to a trafficker in court for the sixth time. He also had 
convictions for theft and burglary.

Police - increasingly tired of arresting the same people - said dealers 
continually told courts they were selling heroin to feed their habit. But 
in cases uncovered by the Herald Sun, only a quarter of offenders who 
escaped jail sentences were ordered to undertake rehabilitation.

Police say those sent to jail have little trouble buying heroin behind bars 
and invariably start trading again as soon as they are released.

"Ninety per cent would be back dealing straight away," a detective said.

"Ten per cent try to help themselves.

"But the rest? No. It's so lucrative."

Another detective said he knew of heroin offenders who preferred to stay in 
prison because of the easy availability of drugs.

Police Association assistant state secretary Sen-Sgt Paul Mullett said 
street-level dealers were a vital cog in the heroin trade.

"These people are the link between the main traffickers and those who are 
addicted," he said.

"If they are removed we will go a long way towards eliminating this problem.

"We recognise magistrates and judges are in possession of all the facts, 
and that includes the presence of a plea. But these dealers are a scourge 
on society."

Most dealers uncovered in the Herald Sun survey were males in their late 
teens and 20s. Forty per cent were also charged with possessing the 
proceeds of crime.

One man received a minimum nine months' jail after being caught with 45g of 
heroin with an estimated street value of $17,000.

He admitted having made $6000 from dealing in the previous month and said 
he spent most of the money on clothes and gambling.

Police usually spend at least six hours catching, processing, interviewing 
and compiling briefs against each dealer - only to find that most are back 
in business straight away.

In the worst heroin-afflicted suburbs, police estimate 70 per cent of all 
their work is generated by the drug trade.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Rob Hulls said he could not comment 
until the current review of sentencing was completed.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Thunder