Source: The West Australian Contact: FAX: +61 8 94823830 Pubdate: Wednesday, August 26, 1998 Author: Francesca Hodge FUNDS ROW THREATENS DRUG TRIAL Hospital ethics committee reviews naltrexone support. STATE Government support for an experimental heroin addiction treatment program is under threat with the imminent release of a report into a Perth-based trial. The Government allocated $180,000 to naltrexone trials, $60,000 of which went to Subiaco doctor George O'Neil's program and $20,000 to the University of WA's Department of Psychiatry. Naltrexone stops addicts feeling high when they use heroin. But the St John of God ethics committee, which originally approved the trial design, said yesterday its support was under review. Committee chairman Keith Wilson would not say why. Earlier this month, a Commonwealth-appointed panel of experts headed by former Fraser government minister Peter Baume investigated the program. Its report, commissioned by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, is expected next month. WA Health Department mental health division head George Lipton said that despite government funding, the department's commitment to Dr O'Neil's naltrexone program extended only to data gathering and analysis. He said concerns centred on whether it fitted the classification of a research program. But Dr O'Neil accused Professor Lipton and the Alcohol and Drug Authority, of trying to discredit the program. He is expected to meet Health Minister John Day tomorrow to ask why $100,000 of the $180,000 promised by the State Government has not been released. He said the ADA had been assigned a monitoring role when the trial was first approved but it had refused to participate. "It seems unreasonable to hold on to the other $100,000," be said. "We believe public servants are ignoring the promises made by the Government." "They are condemning us at a time when they haven't sent a single person out to interview a single family. Without monitoring, I don't have a proper trial and they've exposed the largest trial in the country to being undermined ... by saying it's not proper." But Dr O'Neil said the heroin problem was so severe, he believed doctors would offer their services free if funding dried up. Professor Lipton dismissed Dr O'Neil's claims as scurrilous. He said while there had been a number of deaths associated with the program, heroin addicts were a difficult population to treat. "Our concern is to work out how safe it is," he said. - --- Checked-by: Pat Dolan