Pubdate: Thu, 29 Nov 2001
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Chloe Saltau

HEROIN ADDICTS INJECTING COCAINE: STUDY

Cocaine, traditionally perceived as nose candy used by affluent 
professionals, has been added to a cocktail of heroin alternatives 
being injected by Melbourne's street drug addicts, new figures 
suggest.

Research from the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, to be 
presented at a national drug trends conference in Sydney today, shows 
20 per cent of injecting drug addicts in a Melbourne survey used 
cocaine in the past six months. Last year, the figure was only 6 per 
cent.

The proportion of addicts who admitted ever injecting cocaine rose 
from 13 per cent to 28 per cent.

And a separate study, to be published today in The Australian and New 
Zealand Journal of Criminology, shows the rate of heroin arrests for 
young, Vietnamese-born offenders is more than twice as high in 
Victoria as New South Wales.

Study authors Lorraine Beyer, from the University of Melbourne's 
criminology department, and Nick Crofts, director of the Centre for 
Harm Reduction at the Macfarlane Burnet Institute, found the 
proportion of Victorian prisoners born in Vietnam jumped by more than 
900 per cent in the 10 years from 1988. Ms Beyer described Victoria's 
drug laws as "inadvertently racist".

She said Vietnamese offenders often made a moral choice to sell drugs 
to other addicts instead of committing violent or property crimes to 
pay for their addiction.

"The harsher penalties appear to have resulted in offenders of 
Vietnamese birth entering prison at a much earlier point in their 
offending careers than ... offenders from other backgrounds," the 
researchers said.

A State Government spokesman said a new drug court was aimed at 
diverting from jail addicts who had been failed by the existing 
system.

Legislation was introduced yesterday and the drug court is expected 
to open in March.

Meanwhile, Turning Point's Craig Fry said it was possible new figures 
pointing to the emergence of cocaine were inflated because 
inexperienced users thought they were injecting cocaine when the 
drugs were methamphetamines.

"Or it may be the beginning of a real shift and emergence of a new 
trend in Melbourne," he said.

"Either way, both public health and law enforcement responses must be 
informed with more evidence around this."

Use of methamphetamines has burgeoned since the heroin supply dried 
up almost a year ago.

Cannabis was still the most commonly used illicit drug, according to 
interviews with 150 injecting drug users in St Kilda, Fitzroy, 
Frankston, Dandenong, Footscray and the CBD.
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