Source: Courier Mail (Australia) Contact: Saturday, August 29, 1998 Author: Ali Lawlor TEENS FALL PREY TO BUS-STOP HEROIN DEALERS NETWORKS of drug dealers offering $20 starter packs of heroin are preying on kids as they get off school buses at an upmarket Brisbane suburban shopping centre, a Courier-Mail investigation has found. Youths aged between 14 and 20 have described how "it is easy to get heroin at the bus stop" outside the Indooroopilly shopping centre. They claim about 10 regular dealers operate "businesses" outside the centre at set times during the week. A l7-year-old teenager outlined the dealers timetable: "Thursday afternoon they come here, Friday nights they go into the city and Saturday afternoons they come here outside the bus stop." Another teenager siad there were starter packs. "There are starter packs of heroin, they give you a little bit for $20 to try - they get you hooked, give you a sample," one said. "Heroin usually costs $50 for a cap and $300 to $400 for a grain - they also sell speed and marijuana." "It's not really cheap. Some people give it on credit." A local youth worker, who declined to be named, said the problem was almost uncontrollable, with dealers setting themselves up in "businesses". "It is a real business. They are well set up profit organisations with mobile phones on non-stop and if one dealer has trouble he'll ring friends and they'll be there in a flash - but it's difficult to prove," she said. The worker said she was losing the battle against drugs in the area, with many youths able to feed their addiction through the ready supply at the centre. "It's almost on tap over there - one young man said to me 'If I go over there I have the drugs pushed on me all the time'," she said. "My concern is that its a transit centre so there's hundreds of kids coming here every day of the week and they only need to have a crisis and the drugs are freely available, they could give in." "If they weren't so freely available maybe they would seek other solutions - - but the drugs over there are easier to get than alcohol." The worker found that marijuana and speed were the most popularly used drugs. A 15-year-old boy said: "The kids come here after Wednesday afternoon sport because they finish earlier - they come here to sell, buy and use - mostly heroin and marijuana." Another teenager, 17, said the dealers "come around in the afternoon and hang around the vending machine at the bus stop". "A lot of school kids buy when they get off the bus," he said. Indooroopilly shopping centre management refused to comment about the alleged drug problem. A group of youths interviewed by The Courier-Mail on Thursday night said starter packs of heroin were readily available at the centre for around $20. Indooroopilly police said the problem was no worse than drug problems found in the inner-city's Fortitude Valley Mall or the Queen Street Mall. Police said dealers used mobile phones for drug transactions so police could never confirm where the deals were done. They said Indooroopilly was an easy access area for kids with trains and buses close by. Drug-Arm spokesperson Judith Hart said dealers were offering starter packs in communities across Australia and "drug hotspots" quite easily moved to other areas. "Starter packs are not isolated to areas (depicted) in media reports ... and are a major area of concern because these particular dealers are preying on the young," she said. "Illicit substances are available in all communities in Australia, if people want them they can get them." John Vu, a settlement officer working for the Department of Immigration and welfare officer for the Vietnamese Community of Australia, said he was "proud" to announce Darra and Inala were no longer Queensland's heroin capitals. But he said he was aware the drug problem could spread to other suburbs, including Runcorn and Indooroopilly. "We have to all educate people in the community that drugs is the way you destroy lives," he said. "You may instantly get some quick bucks but down the road I have yet to see anyone who has survived." - --- Checked-by: Pat Dolan