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This is a transcript of The World Today broadcast at 12:10 AEST on local radio.
Designer drugs taking over from heroin
The World Today - Wednesday, August 1, 2001 12:45
COMPERE: Well let's go to a drug problem of an altogether different kind and that is the debate over how to tackle the illicit drug problems for addicts.
There's growing evidence apparently that so-called designer drugs are taking over from heroin as the drugs of choice.
The Australian Federal Police say heroin dealers are giving up on Australia and many manufacturers and traffickers of methamphetamines are moving in to exploit the gap.
The news comes as another heroin withdrawal treatment becomes available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme under a subsidy, but as Tanya Nolan reports for us, the latest data shows that heroin deaths are declining and authorities are increasingly aware that they're now confronting a far more insidious danger.
TANYA NOLAN: The nation's health and law enforcement authorities are generally pleased with their efforts in trying to reduce Australia's illicit drug problem.
At the ministers' annual meeting in Adelaide, Victoria has been showing off its latest statistics revealing 27 heroin overdose deaths up until August this year compared with 200 in the same period last year and those figures reflect a national trend that the number of heroin deaths is falling dramatically.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Kelty says that trend is linked to an increase in heroin seizure rates the slowing rate of production of the drug overseas.
But Commissioner Kelty warns that as the heroin supply slows a new drug problem is taking hold.
MICK KELTY: The trend in amphetamines and methamphetamines is spiking upwardly in a remarkable way.
TANYA NOLAN: Four-hundred-and-twelve kilograms of methamphetamine was seized in Queensland just last month. A new breed of designer drugs which include ice and an ecstasy type tablet known as MBDB, or Eden. And the danger with these types of drugs according to Mick Kelty is the ease with which they can be produced.
MICK KELTY: Heroin and cocaine are linked to agricultural production. The process for producing methamphetamine is quite different. It comes from a plant called the ephedra plant, and the ephedra plant grows wild in many parts of China, but also the ephedra plant can be synthesised so where you might have had problems with drought or you might have problems with labour intensive agriculture, that's almost eliminated with the production of methamphetamine and that's why I think the trend in the future years will be much greater towards this type of drug.
TANYA NOLAN: Those working on the frontline say the use of designer drugs is becoming particularly prevalent in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
James Pitts, general manager of the drug rehabilitation centre, Odyssey House, says with the heroin drought and the increasing availability of methamphetamines it's easy to see why there's been a surge in demand for designer drugs.
JAMES PITTS: When you look at the costs associated with the importation of heroin, not that it's particularly difficult to produce in the producing countries but the fact that you have to then import it, you have to smuggle it into the country, the risk of detection of arrest, you know, and even then, I mean it's profitable people would do that. On the other hand methamphetamine can be produced locally. There are a number of entrepreneurial people who see it as an opportunity to make a lot of money. It's very cheap to produce. It can be made in, you know, back yard laboratories and shipped around the country.
TANYA NOLAN: Brian Watters chairs the Government's National Council on Drugs and he says while methamphetamines don't have the same risk factors associated with heroin they present a new kind of social problem.
BRIAN WATTERS: The treatment services, particularly those that I'm associated with around Sydney, but I'm told it's true across the country, are fighting, these clients when they do come in are very, very difficult to handle. They're given to bouts of rage. They can become uncontrollable. They can become violent, and it's true of them on the street as well if they're really abusing these substances.
So whilst we're saving people's lives, and that's wonderful, if the other side effect is we're going to have people who are creating more mayhem on the streets and within their families then that's a very serious matter.
COMPERE: Salvation Army Major Brian Watters is the Chairman of the Prime Minister's National Council on Drugs. Tanya Nolan with our story.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/s339102.htm
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And the Mission is the Mouse...
Designer drugs taking over from heroin
The World Today - Wednesday, August 1, 2001 12:45
COMPERE: Well let's go to a drug problem of an altogether different kind and that is the debate over how to tackle the illicit drug problems for addicts.
There's growing evidence apparently that so-called designer drugs are taking over from heroin as the drugs of choice.
The Australian Federal Police say heroin dealers are giving up on Australia and many manufacturers and traffickers of methamphetamines are moving in to exploit the gap.
The news comes as another heroin withdrawal treatment becomes available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme under a subsidy, but as Tanya Nolan reports for us, the latest data shows that heroin deaths are declining and authorities are increasingly aware that they're now confronting a far more insidious danger.
TANYA NOLAN: The nation's health and law enforcement authorities are generally pleased with their efforts in trying to reduce Australia's illicit drug problem.
At the ministers' annual meeting in Adelaide, Victoria has been showing off its latest statistics revealing 27 heroin overdose deaths up until August this year compared with 200 in the same period last year and those figures reflect a national trend that the number of heroin deaths is falling dramatically.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Kelty says that trend is linked to an increase in heroin seizure rates the slowing rate of production of the drug overseas.
But Commissioner Kelty warns that as the heroin supply slows a new drug problem is taking hold.
MICK KELTY: The trend in amphetamines and methamphetamines is spiking upwardly in a remarkable way.
TANYA NOLAN: Four-hundred-and-twelve kilograms of methamphetamine was seized in Queensland just last month. A new breed of designer drugs which include ice and an ecstasy type tablet known as MBDB, or Eden. And the danger with these types of drugs according to Mick Kelty is the ease with which they can be produced.
MICK KELTY: Heroin and cocaine are linked to agricultural production. The process for producing methamphetamine is quite different. It comes from a plant called the ephedra plant, and the ephedra plant grows wild in many parts of China, but also the ephedra plant can be synthesised so where you might have had problems with drought or you might have problems with labour intensive agriculture, that's almost eliminated with the production of methamphetamine and that's why I think the trend in the future years will be much greater towards this type of drug.
TANYA NOLAN: Those working on the frontline say the use of designer drugs is becoming particularly prevalent in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
James Pitts, general manager of the drug rehabilitation centre, Odyssey House, says with the heroin drought and the increasing availability of methamphetamines it's easy to see why there's been a surge in demand for designer drugs.
JAMES PITTS: When you look at the costs associated with the importation of heroin, not that it's particularly difficult to produce in the producing countries but the fact that you have to then import it, you have to smuggle it into the country, the risk of detection of arrest, you know, and even then, I mean it's profitable people would do that. On the other hand methamphetamine can be produced locally. There are a number of entrepreneurial people who see it as an opportunity to make a lot of money. It's very cheap to produce. It can be made in, you know, back yard laboratories and shipped around the country.
TANYA NOLAN: Brian Watters chairs the Government's National Council on Drugs and he says while methamphetamines don't have the same risk factors associated with heroin they present a new kind of social problem.
BRIAN WATTERS: The treatment services, particularly those that I'm associated with around Sydney, but I'm told it's true across the country, are fighting, these clients when they do come in are very, very difficult to handle. They're given to bouts of rage. They can become uncontrollable. They can become violent, and it's true of them on the street as well if they're really abusing these substances.
So whilst we're saving people's lives, and that's wonderful, if the other side effect is we're going to have people who are creating more mayhem on the streets and within their families then that's a very serious matter.
COMPERE: Salvation Army Major Brian Watters is the Chairman of the Prime Minister's National Council on Drugs. Tanya Nolan with our story.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/s339102.htm
------------------
And the Mission is the Mouse...