Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jan 2001
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Forum: http://forums.f2.com.au/login/login.asp?board=TheAge-Talkback
Author: Steve Dow

LOVING FAMILY FUNDS CLINIC TO GIVE ADDICTS A FRESH START

Peter White had no conception of how hard it would be to get his daughter 
Lucy off heroin. Mr White and his wife, Lindy, looked on in horror as the 
teenager spiralled downwards. "I couldn't accept that our beautiful 
daughter became a liar, a thief, and a cheat," he says.

Lucy's sisters and brother had not abused drugs. But the youngest daughter 
of this affluent Melbourne family was different. While at boarding school 
she developed bulimia and depression. At 16, she went with a girlfriend to 
Bourke Street and scored. For more than a year she hid her heroin usage 
from her parents.

"It just took away the pain, both mentally and physically," the 19-year-old 
says. "Then you end up in a bit of a trap. You need to use it or get sick." 
Lucy sits at the dining table overlooking the family's property, dotted 
with horses and cattle, and speaks optimistically about the future, about a 
job, about travel. She is articulate, well-presented. And loved. She knows 
she is lucky, given the almost-daily fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria.

Help came when Lucy was flown to a Perth clinic last January to undergo a 
controversial one-day detoxification, using sedatives and the anti-heroin 
drug Narcan to "flush" the heroin out, while lying on a mattress on the floor.

The next day, the family says, Lucy was clean. She was gradually introduced 
to the drug Naltrexone. It blocks the brain receptors that produce the 
heroin cravings and she continues to take it daily in pill form.

Inspired by his daughter's turnabout and frustrated by political 
intransigence over the use of flushing therapy and Naltrexone, Mr White 
bought a property in St Kilda last year and set up his own detoxification 
clinic, called First Step, modelled on the Perth clinic.

He has poured more than $500,000 of his own money into the venture, topped 
up by other donations. More than 220 people have been treated, and another 
200 are on the waiting list. Users who want to undergo the therapy are 
charged $200 - much less than comparable clinics - and receive Naltrexone 
at a reduced rate. Volunteers help staff the clinic.

Mr White welcomed this past week's announcement by the State Government 
that it would open more drug withdrawal beds by July. But he says more 
treatment services are required, and federal and state governments need to 
open their minds about using flushing detoxification and Naltrexone.

Authorities have been loathe to adopt the treatment because of a perceived 
lack of scientific data. But Mr White insists the success rate is high, and 
the type of double-blind controlled trials that authorities require would 
be unethical because they would involve giving heroin addicts a placebo or 
dummy pill.

He admits Naltrexone is not for everyone, and is no "magic wand".

Lucy had earlier tried it, but had stopped taking it and reverted to heroin 
without telling her parents.

On New Year's Eve 13 months ago, she suffered an overdose and severe 
withdrawal symptoms when she accidentally took a Naltrexone pill - 
mistaking it for an anti-depressant - on top of a heroin hit.

But Mr White says that if secondary care is involved - tactile group 
therapy and supervision to ensure the medication is taken - patients can 
succeed. Naltrexone should be made more easily available, he says.

Free of the heroin cravings, Lucy travelled to London with her sister for 
the second half of last year, and gained a job as a secretary. "When I got 
overseas, heroin was not even a thought," she says. "I actually think I'm 
worth something now."
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