Pubdate: Sun, 13 May 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: Steve Dow

CONCERN AT BREAK IN HEROIN DROUGHT

The national heroin drought appears to be breaking, creating fears for 
health agencies that the big decline in fatal overdoses might be at an end.

Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence analysts believe heroin 
availability has increased in the past couple of weeks, possibly due to a 
recent rise in importation or release of warehoused stocks.

The street price remains as high as $500 a gram, however, and addicts 
report that purity is still low.

Debate has raged over why Australia has undergone a heroin drought since 
Christmas. Fatal overdoses fell from 64 to 11 in Victoria for January to 
March this year, compared with the same period last year.

Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre experts say adverse weather 
conditions in major source countries in Asia may have combined with 
improved policing efforts to create the heroin drought.

But the bureau's drug intelligence coordinator, Shaun Reynolds, dismissed 
the weather theory. Afghanistan, for instance, had undergone a drought but 
production there had trebled. Burma had not experienced droughts or floods.

Mr Reynolds attributed a loss of confidence by local importation cartels in 
the Australian market, possibly partly due to a cost-benefit analysis, and 
partly influenced by an increase in seizures by Australian Federal Police 
from ships coming into Sydney and Port Macquarie, as well as offshore in Fiji.

Mr Reynolds dismissed theories that there might have been a cooperative 
effort by importers to artificially starve the market.

With the drug market operating in US dollars, the ailing Australian dollar 
might also have precipitated the heroin drought, he said.

Turning Point researcher Craig Fry and director Margaret Hamilton say that 
to cover the heroin shortfall many addicts have been injecting prescribed 
benzodiazepines such as temazepam and diazepam, which increase overdose and 
other risks including dual drug dependency and vein and soft tissue damage.

Injected methamphetamines and morphine has been substituted for heroin by 
many addicts. Some have turned to analgesics or alcohol.

"These changed practices in the wake of changes in supply must be better 
understood," the pair wrote in a research paper. "Our current treatment of 
those injecting stimulants such as methamphetamine lags behind our 
knowledge and response to heroin use."

Ms Hamilton said last week: "I'm concerned that some might take advantage 
of rather simplistic explanations of that (the fall in heroin deaths), and 
say, 'oh, this must mean that the (federal) Tough on Drugs (campaign) is 
working'."
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MAP posted-by: Beth