South Asia law and order breakdown boosts heroin trade

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SIMON LAUDER: The last time heroin was readily available on the streets it was killing three Australians nearly every day.

Now there's evidence Australia's heroin drought is well and truly over.

Twenty-five year old Hayden, who doesn't want to provide his last name, has had what he calls a 'full-time' heroin habit for a decade.

HAYDEN: One day the price is through the roof and the next day it's back to normal.

SIMON LAUDER: So you haven't noticed in the last, say, year that there's been more available or anything like that?

HAYDEN: In the last year or so it has got a bit better than what it was around 2000. I admit that it's got, it's got a bit stronger, it's getting more available, more people using it. It grabs you a lot harder, like it makes you a lot sicker.

SIMON LAUDER: The level of opium production worldwide has doubled in the last decade and the Australian National Council on Drugs says Australia's a big target because illegal drugs fetch good prices here.

ROBERT ALI: The Australian Government and state governments have been very much focused on illegal drugs over the past decade. But in recent times, most of the attention has been directed towards alcohol, and while there is genuine concern about drinking patterns within Australia, that doesn't allow us, I think, to ignore the fact that heroin represents a real threat.

SIMON LAUDER: The council's Asia Pacific chairman, Professor Robert Ali, says there have been a record number of border seizures of heroin recently and there's also evidence that overdose rates are on the rise in Victoria.

Professor Ali says Australian Government data on drug use trends will lag behind that evidence and he wants to raise the alarm early.

ROBERT ALI: We think that we need to also look at the other points of concern and that particularly relates to harm. With the Victorian evidence showing a sustained increase in the numbers of people for ambulance callouts from overdose, that would reflect possibly an increase in demand and we should be getting ahead of the curve now, and looking at hardening the availability of heroin, as well as providing adequate responses to demand.

SIMON LAUDER: The manager of the First Step treatment clinic in Melbourne, Hayden Salomons, confirms that heroin's making a strong comeback.

HAYDN SALOMONS: Over the past 18 to 24 months we've been busier than we've ever been.

SIMON LAUDER: Mr Salomons says heroin use has increased while Government policies focus more on other drugs.

HAYDN SALOMONS: I probably would have said, sort of, even 18, 24 months ago that it was certainly, if you were a heroin user, the supplies were on the mend. But I think partly at that time too there was also a massive focus on ice and amphetamines. So I think it sort of snuck in a little bit under the radar as well.

SIMON LAUDER: Professor Robert Ali says more heroin not only means more addiction, it means more first time uses and Australia needs to get ready by boosting treatment programs.

ROBERT ALI: If availability increases and price reduces, then you can get a larger number of people who will be experimenting with the drug who may not go on to become dependent.

People who use heroin are 13 times more likely to die than their age-match counterparts. So, 100,000 dependent users in Australia at the moment; how many will be there as a consequence of increased availability? Hard to say.

SIMON LAUDER: The National Council on Drugs says a breakdown of law and order in south-west Asia is making heroin trafficking easier and Australia should help reduce demand in the region by helping neighbouring countries introduce drug treatment programs.