Pubdate: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 Source: Illawarra Mercury (Australia) Copyright: Illawarra Newspapers Website: http://mercury.illnews.com.au/ Contact: 1 Author: Tina Sorenson and Australian Associated Press DRUG OUTRAGE MPs Call For More Customs Services Heroin Crisis Sparks Govt Shame The NSW Government has been shamed into admitting it has to work harder on the problem of drug abuse. There was widespread community outrage yesterday after a newspaper published photographs showing a young boy shooting up heroin in the back streets of Sydney. More Customs officers were needed to stop heroin entering Australia through Port Kembla, Illawarra politicians said. Two people died in the region last week from a lethal batch of the drug that police believe was bought at Port Kembla. Ambulance officers, who have revived many addicts in recent days, saved an 18-year-old who overdosed on a Wollongong railway station platform yesterday. At Warilla, police charged a 23-year-old Berkeley addict with assault after the woman allegedly stabbed her mother in the face with a syringe. Meantime, Health Minister Andrew Refshauge suspended an outlet of the Government's needle exchange service at Caroline Lane in inner-city Redfern while it investigated the facts behind the Sun-Herald newspaper's report. The photograph showed the boy, who looks to be 12 or 13 years old, allowing a man to inject him close to a government van which distributes clean needles to drug users. "I don't think anybody would want anything except (for) no-one to take heroin - it is a horrendous, horrendous thing," Dr Refshauge said in Sydney yesterday. "To see children taking heroin just compounds that feeling. I think the system has failed this youngster and I think we need to do better," Dr Refshauge said. Cunningham MP Stephen Martin and Keira MP Col Markham called on the Federal Government to boost the efficiency of the Australian Customs Service. Mr Martin said staff cuts and a reduction in the hours worked by five remaining officers at Port Kembla was leaving the region wide open to heroin importation. "There is clearly an increasing incidence of young people in our community turning to heroin," Mr Martin said. "People are telling me they're seeing drug deals done openly in public places like the Wollongong Mall." Mr Markham believes rising unemployment in Australia during the past 20 years has led to an epidemic of heroin use. "The mongrels who deal in the white powder of death are completely immoral," Mr Markham said. "But what I want to know is what Customs is doing to stop it entering the country." Christian Democrat leader Fred Nile, who campaigned in the Illawarra yesterday, said he had heard that the State Government had progressively reduced the number of officers in drug squads across the state. Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski said the problem required a bipartisan response and called for an independent inquiry to establish whether the program was working. Health experts warned against shutting down the needle exchange program. The Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia warned that its demise would increase the risk of HIV infection spreading among teenagers. - --- MAP posted-by: derek rea