Pubdate: Tue, 01 May 2001
Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.thecouriermail.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/98
Author: Tony Koch

DRUG EXPERT CALLS FOR CITY CLINIC TO BE SHUT

A LEADING medical practitioner in the area of drug addiction yesterday 
called for a Brisbane naltrexone heroin treatment clinic to be closed 
immediately.

Psychiatrist Ian Curtis said that Dr Stuart Reece's clinic at West End 
should be shut so a professional assessment could be made of his radical 
treatment methods.

Dr Curtis also slammed the proposed introduction of heroin ``shooting 
galleries''.

He said that instead of decriminalising drugs, the people using them should 
be decriminalised and treated as patients, not criminals.

Dr Curtis said he was concerned about figures on the deaths of addicts 
acknowledged by Dr Reece in an interview published in the Courier-Mail last 
Saturday. Dr Reece said in the article that he had treated almost 850 
patients with naltrexone since 1998 and knew of 24 deaths among them.

"About a year after we began there was a cluster of deaths,'' Dr Reece 
said. `` I think that's because addicts don't believe what we tell them 
that it can be dangerous and they find out for themselves. The kids are 
dying anyway and anyone who tries to help will have deaths.''

Dr Curtis said it was generally understood that follow-up care for such a 
patient population was very difficult ``and I am sure that Dr Reece would 
agree that his figures for outcomes and for the deaths will be an 
under-estimation''.

"I believe, given the figures acknowledged already, that Dr Reece should 
cease his program until it is evaluated and he can thoughtfully recover 
from the stress in which he has put himself by being a Noah's Ark for 
desperate people,'' Dr Curtis said.

"I am concerned that the present situation is hazardous for Dr Reece and 
perhaps for his patients and surely for the future for diverse therapies 
for other sufferers.

"I agree absolutely with Professor John Saunders of the University of 
Queensland that perhaps only 3 to 5 per cent of sufferers are suitable for 
naltrexone therapy.''

Dr Curtis, an adviser on alcohol and drugs to Queensland governments since 
1982 and foundation director of the Health Department's alcohol and drug 
policy branch, said Australians had tended to be excessive in the use of 
mind-altering substances.

"Unfortunately poorly informed debates about hard versus soft drugs lead 
young people to flirt with the risk-taking and the adventure of youth with 
substances of dubious origin and complex physiology and biochemistry,'' Dr 
Curtis said.

"There is a tragedy where we are regularly losing a percentage of our young 
people to drug dependence and that tragedy now affects nearly every family 
in Australia.

"Parents being parents are desperate to get things fixed quickly...many 
people can be misdirected in thinking that a quick fix is available. 
Whatever the method of treatment, good follow-up and long-term supervision 
by professionals is fundamental to a good outcome.''

Dr Reece last night said he had no comment to make.
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