Pubdate: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441 Author: Alex Wodak Note: Dr Alex Wodak is the director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst. HEROIN DROUGHT IS NO QUICK FIX FOR THE DRUG BLIGHT The Sudden Scarcity Of Heroin Is Not Necessarily Caused By The Federal Government's 'Get Tough' Policy, Writes Alex Wodak. After several decades of unsuccessful attempts to reduce drug supplies, we finally have a scarcity of heroin in Australia. But this has not turned out to be the nirvana we have long been promised. There are conflicting explanations about why it has occurred: either heroin production has been reduced in source countries, or law enforcement has improved. Understanding which explanation is likely to be true is a pointer to what should be done to tackle the continuing blight of illicit drugs in our community. Estimates of heroin production and heroin seizures in Australia, which would help us to choose between the two explanations, are not publicly available at present. But they will become available within the next year. The Prime Minister, John Howard, and Major Brian Watters, chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs, have claimed that the heroin drought results from improved domestic law enforcement, thus vindicating the Federal Government's "get tough" policy. Watters says "the most important thing is to reduce the supply of drugs". Independent experts do not support the claims by Howard and Watters. The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, has said the heroin drought is more the result of a business strategy. Asian crime syndicates, he said, had "made a marketing decision to deal mainly in methamphetamine tablets instead of heroin". Also, most heroin reaching Australia originates in Burma, which has been affected by a severe drought. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan last year also declined substantially after a drought. Opium production is quite sensitive to reductions in rainfall just before or soon after the poppy is planted. Our low dollar and increasing demand for heroin in China and the former Soviet Union may be additional factors depressing supply to Australia. The National Crime Authority Commentary 2001 noted: "In the year 1999/2000 Australian law enforcement agencies seized a total of approximately 5.3 tonnes of illicit drugs in Australia. Of the 5.3 tonnes, approximately 734 kilograms was heroin. The NCA estimates that this represents just 12 per cent of heroin being consumed." Is it possible that increased effectiveness of domestic law enforcement could result in such a sudden and dramatic scarcity of heroin? Has effectiveness doubled suddenly to 24 per cent, or trebled to 36 per cent? Neither Howard nor Watters has produced any heroin seizures data to support their claims. The fact that no other country has so far reported such a severe heroin drought suggests that improved domestic law may have contributed to the heroin scarcity. But on many occasions when heroin production has declined temporarily, poor weather in growing regions usually ended up as the accepted explanation. In the absence of supportive data, many will accept the judgement of royal commissioner Justice James Wood that "it is fanciful to think that drug addicts can be prevented from obtaining and using prohibited drugs". Whether we like it or not, the odds are stacked against attempts to substantially reduce drug supplies from entering our 27,000-kilometre coastline. Only one in 200 of the eight million passengers arriving by air each year and four in a thousand of the almost two million containers arriving by sea each year are searched. The price of a kilogram of heroin increases 300-fold in its journey from country of origin to country of destination. More intensive application of law enforcement often leads to more dangerous drugs driving out less dangerous drugs. A market correction is likely sooner or later connecting new supplies to unmet demand, especially with such a lucrative product. There are already reports that opium poppies are being planted in parts of Afghanistan controlled by the Northern Alliance. Has the heroin drought helped us? Drug overdose deaths in Australia increased 110-fold between 1964 and 1998. The reduction of drug overdose deaths in Australia by one-half to two-thirds in 2001 has been very welcome. But the heroin drought has also had its downsides and risks. Amphetamine injecting has increased in Australia and cocaine injecting is increasing in parts of Sydney. Rising use of these stimulant drugs has been linked to growing violence. In Vancouver, Canada, HIV spread rapidly among the city's injecting drug users a few years ago after a sudden switch from heroin injecting to cocaine injecting. HIV then began to spread to the general population. It is far more difficult to control HIV among cocaine injectors than among heroin injectors. Some inject cocaine up to 20 times a day compared with a maximum of five to six times a day for a particularly entrenched heroin injector. They are at risk of paranoid or aggressive behaviour for several hours a day. Also, there is no pharmacological treatment for cocaine users comparable with methadone for heroin users. The heroin drought is a further warning that illicit drugs should be treated predominantly as a health and social issue. Like drug users themselves, the community should abandon the notion of a quick fix. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth