NEWS: News.com.au - 22/10/07 'Expert predicts flood of heroin'

[lil angel15]

Expert predicts flood of heroin
By Stephen Lunn
October 22, 2007 12:30am

• Drug gangs 'very prepared' for glut
• East-Asia region 'over-supplied'
• Australia an 'obvious and likely' target

AUSTRALIAN authorities have been warned by one of the world's top anti-drug tsars to expect a flood of heroin and amphetamines from East Asia in the wake of an explosion in the production of the illicit substances in the region.

So flush with drugs are the East Asian crime gangs that the UN's Jeffrey Avina said they were prepared, more than ever before, to risk losing valuable shipments at border controls in an attempt to penetrate the Australian market.

The region's current oversupply, resulting from the brimming poppy fields of Afghanistan and Burma and industrial-scale methamphetamine "superlabs", require Australian authorities to be extra vigilant, Mr Avina said.

Mr Avina, director of the division for operations at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, visited Australia from his base in Vienna to brief officials about the most recent data on regional drug trafficking threats.

He told The Australian that organised crime gangs were keenly aware of the market in Australia for methamphetamine, the second most used drug behind cannabis.

"You are close to the providers, the organised gangs, and there is already market penetration," he said.

"Therefore you are obviously a likely target.

"While your AFP (Australian Federal Police) have the highest rate of methamphetamine lab closures in the region, the really large producers, the one-tonne-a-week producers, are operating in the safe haven countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

"And in terms of heroin, there is real concern about the new big crops in Burma, one of your principal suppliers. Cropping there has become more technical, double cropping done less by indigenous people and more as a business."

The UNODC's report, Patterns and Trends in Amphetamine-Type Stimulants in East Asia and the Pacific, released earlier this month, found the gangs were producing the more concentrated and addictive crystal form of methamphetamine in preference to pills.

"Almost 40 million methamphetamine pills were seized in the region in 2006, along with 8.4 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine," the report said.

"This is an increase from 2005 of almost 15 million pills and 1.4tonnes of crystal methamphetamine."

The report will come as disturbing news after another set of findings released last week by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found that the use of methamphetamine by injecting drug users declined from 57 per cent to 47 per cent between last year and this.

Longtime drugs expert Robert Ali, a member of the Australian National Council on Drugs, said some heart could be taken in the plateauing use of ice, but the UN report showed more supply could be expected from Asia.

"Methamphetamine is still the second most commonly used illegal drug in Australia behind cannabis," Associate Professor Ali said.

"Until the very recent past, virtually all the methamphetamine was produced domestically via the outlaw motorcycle gangs through diversion of legal pharmaceuticals.

"But we live near countries where methamphetamine production exceeds capacity, and we are a country that pays a relatively high price for the drug."

News.com.au

 

[technoHarmony]

yesssss

there is some hope for the shitty H scene....

 

[the_ketaman]

^^Amen.

 

[psytaco]

Found this to be quite a good article.

South-East asia does produce an abundance of methamphetamine. its commonly sold in pill form in SEA but i could see them increasing production of crystal to traffick to australia.
Burma is considered one of the main drug hubs of SEA. considering the volatile political situation there, and its neightbour thailand it would be prime time for drug production to increase. Drugs are easily traffickable across borders in these countries and bribbery is prevelant. Considering that only 10% of shipping containers are thoroughly scanned in Aus, i could see plenty getting through if there was a flood of trafficking.
AS for heroin, i don't know, i imagine that afghanistan exports mainly to europe, whilst countries like Burma and Laos may focus more on oz - I still think that methamphetamine will be the primary focus of importation as the market is much bigger.

 

[kingpin007]

I heard on radio this arvo on JJJ as I was driving home from work and they said there would be a flood of cocaine and that the government wants to pass a law where if your a member of a bikie gang or similar that you can be charged just for being a member etc even if your a total angel that doesnt break any law. They want to crack down on organised crime..

 

[Splatt]

That is bullshit because there are many motorcycle clubs that are in it for the bikes, doing poker runs, riding around with a few mates, going to their licensed public club house and getting on the piss and playing pool and chatting shit. The amount of good bikies that weren't the normal Rebels, Hells Angels, Lone Wolves, Gipsy Jokers etc.... I have met amazed me. They may take drugs, some of them, some of their hearts wqould give out tho if they got on too much. They might smoke a little weed, but some of the members may deal, and traffick. Doesn't mean the whole club is illegal.

 

[lovebrisvegas]

yesssss

there is some hope for the shitty H scene....

yay indeed!

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

I heard on radio this arvo on JJJ as I was driving home from work and they said there would be a flood of cocaine

"Experts" have been predicting that for 25 years, it's yet to happen

That is bullshit because there are many motorcycle clubs that are in it for the bikes, doing poker runs, riding around with a few mates, going to their licensed public club house and getting on the piss and playing pool and chatting shit. The amount of good bikies that weren't the normal Rebels, Hells Angels, Lone Wolves, Gipsy Jokers etc.... I have met amazed me. They may take drugs, some of them, some of their hearts wqould give out tho if they got on too much. They might smoke a little weed, but some of the members may deal, and traffick. Doesn't mean the whole club is illegal.

And it's hardly going to deter crime, the real outlaws will be all to happy to take of their patches and it's not like they have membership lists open to the public or anything 8)

I actually think there are much more insidious reasons for laws like these, it will only be a matter of time before they are being applied to political groups as well

 

[lil angel15]

Overdose fears as heroin flood looms
By Brad Watts
October 24, 2007 12:00am

HEROIN is set for a devastating comeback on Sydney streets and could trigger a major surge in overdoses, drug experts warned yesterday.

While a recent heroin drought led to a drop in overdoses in Australia, an influx of pure heroin from East Asia is expected to flood the local market, sparking grave fears of more drug deaths.

The quantity of heroin imported to Australia has almost doubled in the past two years, jumping from 40kg in 2005-06 to about 70kg last financial year, the latest statistics show.

A dramatic increase in poppy production in Afghanistan and Burma due to favourable weather conditions has been blamed for the increased supply of pure heroin, which experts say is destined for Sydney, which is renowned as Australia's heroin capital.

The Australian National Council on Drugs yesterday warned low grade heroin supplies were being supplemented by higher concentrations.

"The increase in purity has a potential problem for more overdoses," the council's executive director Gino Vumbaca said.

"Sydney is the market where it comes to and there's an increase in usage patterns."

The UN has recently confirmed Burma had dramatically increased poppy yields.

"They're expecting a lot of heroin to be produced and sold and the destination will be Sydney and Melbourne," Mr Vumbaca said.

The trend has angered Australia's leading drug support group which held a memorial service in Canberra this week - attended by more than 100 people - to pay tribute to family members lost to drug overdoses.

"We haven't solved the problem, we haven't done anything to make long-term solutions," a Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform spokesman said.

The heroin issue was also raised at a national drug strategy conference on the Gold Coast yesterday with experts saying supplies were certainly on the rise.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Council spokeswoman Louisa Degenhardt said internal research showed drug users confirmed that heroin supply was increasing.

"A greater proportion said it was very easy to get compared to last year," she said.

Daily Telegraph

 

[Splatt]

Doesnt mean the people won't just cut it down even more than they do now and sell the for same price.

 

[rm2x]

I remember when brisbane had a flood of the really pure heroin, it was between 80-90% pure.
Alot of leaflets were produced recommending people to smoke it as opposed to injecting it because of the purity.

 

[mepat1111]

YAY!!! This is the best article I've read in a long time, finally some good shit will be around, and hopefully the price will be reasonable too.

 

[psytaco]

^ don't get excited just yet. This is all just speculation

 

[mepat1111]

Aww but the speculation makes me happy! lol

Seriously thought cheap H in particular (I don't mind a bit of meth every now and then though) would make me a very happy man. I pay rediculous prices at the moment.

 

[hoptis]

Heroin seizures up, Customs says
Posted Fri 26/10/07

Customs say it is too early to say whether an increase in heroin shipments being intercepted at Australian borders is a sign there will soon be a surge in its availability.

There is some speculation that international heroin production is growing and that an increase in the amount seized by Customs officers reflects that trend.

Customs' national manager for border targeting, John Valastro, says the increase is documented in the 2006/2007 annual report released this week.

But he says it has a lot to do with improved detection, rather than a rise in production.

"It's a bit hard to say that in the space of a year you can actually draw those sorts of conclusions," he said.

"Production patterns change depending on the types of markets that are being developed or established overseas, and one of the things that we do is that we actually monitor those changes, so that we can effectively target and assess the risks that might be out there."

Mr Valastro says as Customs gets tougher, criminals get smarter and many are now trying to import drugs on a much smaller scale, through passengers or the post.

"We actually see that as a positive in the sense that it is showing us that criminals perceive a risk in trying to cross the border, so they try different methodologies," he said.

He says Customs has specific tactics to counter what is called the 'ant' method.

ABC News

 

[hoptis]

Hammer horror - the curse of the streets returns

Felix and Cassie, long-time addicts, feed their habit in their dingy room in a Collingwood boarding house. Neither ever thought their lives would come to this.
Photo: Meredith O Shea

Reid Sexton
October 28, 2007

MELBOURNE is set to be caught up in an international tidal wave of high-purity Afghan heroin flooding world markets — with local addicts confirming the more lethal drug is already available on the city's streets.

The potential influx of Afghan heroin — produced from record opium crops flourishing in regions under Taliban rule — has sparked fears that Melbourne could once again become a destination for cheap, high-purity heroin as it was in the late 1990s.

The heroin epidemic claimed nearly 1000 Victorian lives in just three years from 1998 before the Australian Federal Police and Customs "took the fight offshore" and smashed a series of multibillion-dollar drug syndicates in South-East Asia. The campaign so severely restricted the heroin trade that by 2001, Australia had entered a "heroin drought".

And while the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre says heroin availability has not yet returned to 2000 levels, it warns that if authorities do not stem the Afghan trade, the effects of the drug flow could be catastrophic.

Victoria's Community Services Minister, Lisa Neville, admits the Government is aware of the threat: "There is some recent, very recent, in the last few months, suggestions that heroin availability is going up."

A recent United Nations report reveals ideal weather and better technology have helped Afghan farmers cultivate a record supply of opium, the main ingredient in heroin, known on the streets as "hammer", "smack", "horse" and "H".

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has vowed to eradicate the crop — which can earn farmers up to 10 times more than legal crops such as wheat — but the war-torn country still supplies 93 per cent of the world's heroin, mostly to the US and Europe.

Now, Afghan drug lords have the Australian market in their sights. Until about four years ago, very little of their brown heroin — so called because it is less refined and more natural-appearing than the usual white heroin — reached Australian streets.

But Federal Police say the amount being imported has accelerated in recent years: in 2006-07, 23.6 per cent of heroin seized at the Australian border originated in Afghanistan, smashing the stranglehold enjoyed by South-East Asia's Golden Triangle.

Melbourne addicts have confirmed that the prevalence of brown heroin has steadily risen, and Jeffrey Avina, director of the division for operations at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, believes that Afghan drug cartels could choose to flood Australia if they think it will create a sustained market.

"Suddenly the producers and distributors are sitting on a high amount … (they) need to get rid of," Mr Avina said.

He said Australia's heroin had traditionally come from Burma but with new trade routes and infrastructure in China, transportation from Afghanistan to Australia had been made easier.

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre studies indicate heroin use has gone up in all of Australia's major cities. Since the drought hit in 2001, the figures have fluctuated as opportunistic dealers have begun importing smaller quantities of the drug.

The latest research shows a significant increase in heroin use by long-term users — a sign of the drug's availability.

Associate Professor Louisa Degenhardt said heroin remained the favourite drug among long-term users. "We saw increases in the proportions across the board … that heroin was easy or very easy to obtain, and an increase in the proportions saying it was medium or high purity as opposed to being low purity, which has really dominated," she said.

While it was too early to say whether Melbourne was facing an epidemic, the threat was real. In the past, heroin supply networks were "highly centralised which allowed a very steady, consistent and high quality supply of the product", she said.

"If it's the case that people can establish such networks again, that is definitely a risk."

One user, who spoke to The Sunday Age on condition of anonymity, said she had seen brown heroin for the first time about eight months ago. This had coincided with a big jump in the general purity and availability of heroin, which she claimed was being used more by young people.

The woman, who used heroin for four years but recently began a drug-substitution program, said the rise in quality had prompted people to drop out of the program. "The pharmacist said we had about 50-60 on a program but now there's 30 there. It's because the heroin has gotten good again and people have jumped off the program and are using again," she said.

Users who spoke with The Sunday Age said more high-purity heroin seemed to be available, which increased the risk of accidental overdoses.

Professor Nick Crofts, from Fitzroy's Turning Point centre, says Australia's "generational memory" of heroin and its devastating effect is being forgotten. He said the market would be supplied by Afghanistan but also by emerging illegal poppy harvesters in Russia and Mongolia. "I think we're seeing a recycling into a new heroin phase," he said.

Four AFP officers went to Afghanistan last week to help local police to try to stop the flow of heroin. Assistant Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg, national manager (border), said while Afghanistan was a major exporter of heroin to Australia, he doubted a "flood" of Taliban-backed heroin was imminent.
Heroin, the facts

WHERE IT COMES FROM(Drugs seizures in Australia, 2006-2007):

■South-East Asia (Golden Triangle): 61.9 per cent

■ Afghanistan: 23.6 per cent

WHAT IT'S WORTH: Afghan farmers can earn $US5200 ($A5700) per hectare of opium or $US546 per hectare cultivated with wheat

WHAT IT COSTS: About $50 for a 0.1 gram hit

SOURCES: AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE, UN

The Age

 

[hoptis]

We cannot allow a repeat of the late '90s heroin scourge
EDITORIAL
October 28, 2007

NOT long ago it seemed that Victoria had largely been weaned off heroin. Sure, it was still on the street, as it probably always will be, but heroin deaths had dropped to record lows and authorities were confident the scourge was in retreat. This newspaper reported that success. Other illicit, killer drugs, such as "ice", became the focus of police, political and media attention; winning the war against heroin was an old story.

Tragically, smack is coming back and drug experts such as Nick Crofts, from the Turning Point centre in Fitzroy, say we need to do some serious thinking about our treatment service. It is, he says, inadequate and struggling to cope with existing demand, let alone with what is yet to come. Says Dr Crofts: "We are working in a policy environment where the previous premier (Steve Bracks) said very clearly heroin is gone and the only problem we have now is amphetamines. Which is utterly wrong. State Government support for both medical treatment for people with addictions and the pharmaco-therapy program is pathetic."

If Dr Crofts is right, and we have no reason to doubt him, then we are heading back to the dark, though recent, past of the late 1990s. No one should pretend that dealing with heroin is easy, or simply about spending more. For all the songs about it, heroin is neither glamorous nor easily dealt with. The central issue is supply and, on that score, Australia is on the horns of a dilemma.

The rules of supply and demand work with white-light precision in the international drug trade, especially with an agriculture-based crop: supply is booming; purity, too, has improved. With so much heroin to offload, drug runners are taking greater risks to import into countries with a cashed-up population — where a minority use opiates to escape the realities of day-to-day existence. When there is so much, losing a shipment or two is no big deal.

The United Nations is worried. But here's the twist: Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer, accounting for 93 per cent of the illegal trade. About 3 million of its people, 14 per cent of the population, depend on its cultivation to survive.

The insurgency in that country, which this week claimed the life of another Australian soldier, is heavily linked to opium, which earns the cash to keep the Taliban in guns. The United States has long since taken a scorched-earth approach to poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, in part to starve the Taliban, in part to keep heroin off US streets. Australia has taken a perhaps more pragmatic view: we turn a blind eye to opium because, in part, we don't want to provoke retribution.

Should we take a different stance? We think so. Australian diggers face great danger in Afghanistan but everything must be done to stop the poppy crop from seeding its tragedies on our streets. Anyone who lived through the heroin epidemic of the late 1990s will remember the toll taken by this pernicious drug. We must do all we can to avoid repeating that.

The Age

 

[Splatt]

Weren't alot of those deaths fentanyl analogues or was that late 80s?

 

[ilikeacid]

The Age

OMG I know those guys!!

That article is such BS! Sunday Age is full of such puff pieces..

 

[GABAlover]

Did someone say smack?