Pubdate: Mon, 11 Sep 2000
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 2000
Contact:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Author: Sarah Stock And John Kerin

MOVE TO SUPPLY NARCAN TO ADDICTS

HEROIN users may be given the revival drug naloxone to treat overdoses in 
their peers as part of a new national push to curb drug deaths. The move 
comes as the federal Government is reconsidering subsidising the 
heroin-craving blocker drug naltrexone for heroin users in response to new 
research supporting its effectiveness.

The Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy, made up of national health 
ministers, is considering a trial of naloxone, marketed as Narcan, in light 
of the continuing toll of heroin deaths, which has topped 1000 per year.

Naloxone is used by ambulance workers to treat opioid overdose. It is 
available on prescription to doctors, but has never been made freely 
available to the public.

Naltrexone is a craving stopper administered to get addicts off heroin.

Proponents of naloxone being made available to users argue it could save 
lives in situations where heroin users are too afraid of criminal 
ramifications to call an ambulance.

The National Drug Research Institute at Perth's Curtin University argues 
the merits of a trial in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.

The institute's researchers investigated the issue at the request of the 
West Australian Health Department, which has since decided not to conduct a 
trial. A spokesman said the drug may give people a false sense of security 
so they do not resuscitate people, call ambulances or seek medical 
attention in the event of an overdose.

But the researchers say a controlled trial is the only way to determine this.

A senior research fellow at the institute, Simon Lenton, said a trial would 
cost about $300,000 over 12 to 18 months, involve about 500 people and 
compare outcomes in two groups.

In new research by a team from Westmead Hospital in Sydney, a trial of 
naltrexone has resulted in half those participating staying off heroin for 
more than 12 months.

Research leader Dr Jon Currie, head of the Western Sydney Area Health 
Service, found that in a trial involving 150 heroin users half had not gone 
back to heroin after 12 months.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said that if there was 
new evidence, then the Government was willing to look at it.
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