Pubdate: Thu, 8 Apr 1999
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Author: Philip Cornford

HEROIN: THE FACTS

There are more than 300,000 Australian heroin users spending at least
$10 billion a year on their addiction. They consume about 10 tonnes
of, mostly, No 4 south-east Asian "white". It is expected that more
than 700 users - five times as many males as females - will fatally
overdose before 1999 is out. More will die of other causes and diseases.

This year, they will cost Australians more than $22 billion in health,
law enforcement, justice and criminal activity. But their impact goes
deeper than that with, ultimately, every Australian a victim as the
immense profits of the illicit drug trade threaten to subvert the
institutions - government, financial, law enforcement, justice - on
which society relies.

In burglaries, robberies and street crime, citizens feel the menace of
desperate users.

Worse, heroin is increasingly threatening our young. Heroin is more
plentiful and cheaper - as low as $20 a hit - than ever. As a result,
addiction is growing and the biggest growth is among the teenagers who
are being targeted by pushers. Police frequently record addicts as
young as 14.

The mean age for the first use of heroin is 17.5 years.

The United Nations says organised crime earns $1.83 trillion a year
from heroin. The International Monetary Fund estimated in 1996 that
$833 billion - 2 per cent of global gross domestic product - is
laundered worldwide each year, to such an extent that heroin poses a
serious threat to national security in some countries.

It is little wonder ordinary Australians feel threatened by,
traumatised about, and helpless before heroin traffickers and users.
The battle is being lost and, in the process, society is divided on
what is to be done.

OVERDOSES

The National Drug Strategy estimates that 1 per cent of males and 0.6
per cent of females 14 years and older use heroin. Cannabis use is
much higher - 22 per cent of males and 15 per cent of females - but is
seldom fatal.

The Sydney-based National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre says that
heroin is one of the leading killers of young Australians, responsible
for 9 per cent of deaths of people aged 15-34.

The national toll from heroin overdoses has soared from 70 in 1979 to
600 in 1997, almost half (292) in NSW.

This is almost double the national homicide rate. The biggest increase
- - 73 per cent - has been in the past 10 years. The research centre
found a 120 per cent increase in heroin-related deaths in south-west
Sydney between 1992 and 1995.

In Victoria, where 268 users fatally overdosed last year, the
Institute of Forensic Medicine predicts deaths may jump 63 per cent
this year. A similar increase in NSW would lift the national toll to
more than 900.

Non-fatal overdoses are also escalating alarmingly. Sixty-eight per
cent of 10-year users report an average of three overdoses.
Twenty-eight per cent of a survey group reported overdosing at least
once in the previous 12 months; 86 per cent had been present when
another user overdosed.

From April to September last year, there were 1,311 non-fatal
overdoses in metropolitan Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Central
Coast.

A report in 1996 estimated the social cost to the community of illicit
drugs in 1992 at $1,684 million.

Most of this was due to heroin, and State and Federal governments bore
33 per cent of the cost. Health care costs are estimated at $539
million, law enforcement at $451 million and paid and unpaid
production losses at $1,212 million.

In comparison, however, the report estimated tobacco cost six times
more and alcoholism almost three times as much.

NEEDLES

Free needle and syringe exchange programs have had the biggest impact
on improving the survival chances of users. A NSW Health Department
study last year reported that HIV infection among injecting drug users
in Australia is less than 2 per cent, compared with World Health
Organisation figures that in 1997 unsafe injection was responsible for
43 per cent of all HIV cases in Europe, 40 per cent in Edinburgh and
Bangkok, and was as high as 75 per cent in Malaysia, Vietnam,
South-West China, north-east India and Myanmar (Burma).

There were 9.24 million needles and syringes distributed free to users
by the NSW Health Department in 1997-98 at a cost to the Government of
$9 million through 319 distribution centres, 520 chemists and 33
vending machines. The program began in 1988.

Fifty per cent of users attending needle exchanges in 1997 had
hepatitis C, down from 66 per cent in 1996, a drop attributed to clean
syringes. About 85 per cent of drug addicts in NSW prisons have
hepatitis C.

CRIME

The Australian Illicit Drug report 1997-98 says many criminologists
believe heroin addiction is responsible for 80 per cent of all crime
in Australia. In 1997, a report commissioned by the Australian
Institute of Criminology (AIC) estimated that the total cost of crime
was $13 billion in Australia, with another $6,433 million spent on law
enforcement, courts, justice and prisons.

The drug report says Australia has one of the highest rates of
residential burglary among industrial nations.

An average of 48 property offences an hour are reported to Australian
police. National Crime Statistics for 1995 reported that break-ins
cost Australians an estimated $1,193 million.

In a report this year, the AIC blamed 8,000 hard-core heroin users for
90 per cent of household break-ins in Australia.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research said heroin addiction
was probably responsible last year for a 33.4 per cent increase in
robberies committed with a firearm, a 76.8 per cent increase in
robberies with a knife and a 29.5 per cent increase in robberies
without a weapon.

Other crimes associated with heroin addicts - residential and
commercial break-ins and thefts from motor vehicles - rose alarmingly.
As a result, police ineffectiveness, law and order and demands for
more policing were the major and most emotive issues in the NSW
election last month.

A Sydney survey of heroin users from 1995 to 1997 found that 70 per
cent had committed a property crime in the past month, 9 per cent a
fraud, 4 per cent a violent crime.

The AIC reported in 1998 that 53 per cent of property offenders said
they were using heroin at the time of their offence.

But another study of drug users in the same year found that 69 per
cent were involved in crime before they began using heroin. It
concluded: drug treatment alone would not stop criminal activity and
"the community and law enforcement should not have unrealistic
expectations about treatment as an intervention".

ENFORCEMENT

On the other hand, law enforcement had minimal effect. Total seizures
in 1998 by customs and police amounted to 300 kilograms of heroin
which, the Australian Illicit Drug Report concluded, did not have any
real impact on the overall availability of the drug. Seizures for the
first seven months of 1998-99 total 656 kilograms.

Heroin arrests Australia-wide rose 42.4 per cent last year, but more
than twice as many users (7,088) were arrested as sellers (3,079). In
NSW, which has the biggest heroin problem, 2,651 users were arrested
compared with 685 sellers. Victoria did much better: 3,636 users and
1,901 sellers.

And the huge profits went mostly untouched. In NSW, seizures of
property and the proceeds of crime totalled $18.5 million in 1997-98.

DISTRIBUTION

The Golden Triangle - Burma, Thailand, Laos - supplies 80 per cent of
Australian heroin; the Golden Crescent - Pakistan and Afghanistan -
supplies 20 per cent. Vietnam, Cambodia, the People's Republic of
China and Colombia are small producers. World production of heroin in
1996 was estimated at 400 tonnes.

Thailand is the primary export point to Australia, followed by Hong
Kong, China, Lebanon and Turkey.

The main entry port is Sydney, where the trade is controlled by
Chinese Triads, who include Australian Chinese as well as members from
Hong Kong and China. Triads identified in Australia are The Fukien,
the Big Circle, Wo Hop To, Sun Yee On, Wo Tee Tong, Wo Shing Wo, 14K
and the Malaysian-based Sing Ma.

The main means of entry is by sea (41 per cent of customs seizures),
air (34 per cent) and parcel post (25 per cent). Air couriers carry 7
per cent.

Vietnamese are the biggest distributors within Australia.

Australian-born and overseas-born Lebanese are active. Romanians form
a smaller group of distributors.

Australians are involved in all States.

PRICE

The Triads buy heroin in Thailand at between $8,000 and $12,000 for an
"Asian unit" of 700 grams. Once the heroin is imported, they sell to
distributors at $130,000 a "unit", also known as an "Asian catti".

Heroin is also sold in "ounce" lots, each weighing about 28 grams. In
Sydney, the average price of an "ounce" is $6,500. Heroin is also sold
in gram units costing $280 in Sydney and $375 in Melbourne.

At street level, heroin is most commonly sold in "caps" or "tabs" - 50
to the gram. The lowest price is $20 in Cabramatta, and $30 elsewhere
in Sydney.

It is $40 in Melbourne, $50 in Adelaide and $80 in the Northern
Territory. A "cap" of cocaine costs $80 in Sydney and $50 in Adelaide.

At each level from distributor to street dealer, the heroin is "taxed"
with additives to increase its bulk. Thus 700 grams bought in Thailand
becomes 1,000 grams on Sydney's streets, worth $1 million by the time
it gets into users' veins. Its value has increased 125 fold.

The most common street names for heroin are smack, horse, H, hammer
and China white.

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