News: Heroin Surge in Australia

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[top]Overdose fears as heroin flood looms

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.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...rom=public_rss

Tuesday October 23, 07:55 PM

[top]AFP targeting Afghan heroin supply

Federal authorities are targeting Afghanistan in a bid to significantly cut the supply of heroin into Australia, a conference has been told.


The Australian Federal Police (AFP) on the weekend sent four agents into Afghanistan to work in conjunction with United Kingdom authorities to learn more about the export of heroin out of the war-torn nation.

AFP chief Mick Keelty revealed the operation as he opened the Australasian Drug Strategy three-day conference on the Gold Coast on Tuesday.

Mr Keelty said a UN report showed that Afghanistan supplied 92 per cent of global heroin, although the major source of illegal drugs into Australia still came from the "golden triangle area" of Burma, Laos and Thailand.


"These are important statistics for us because we don't want to see any heroin coming to Australia," Mr Keelty said.


"But we certainly don't want any market opening up for Afghan heroin whilst we're trying to work suppressing heroin supply out through Burma and South-East Asia."


Mr Keelty said two AFP agents would be based in the Afghan capital Kabul and the others in the eastern city of Jalalabad.


"They'll be looking at places like the Khyber Pass and the supply of heroin into north Asia," he said of the federally funded project.


The same UN report quoted by Mr Keelty also warned Australia 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.


Mr Keelty said the warning emphasised the need for the AFP to continue its offshore battle against illicit substances.


He pointed out that major drug labs in Malaysia, Indonesia and Fiji had been closed down over the past three years.


"The one in Indonesia was the third-largest in the world," he said.


"It's not all bad news. What we've got to do is reduce the market so we reduce the demand from our own country and try and turn the markets elsewhere."


Mr Keelty announced the AFP would be opening a second office in Guangzhou, China, adding to its Beijing centre, to help stem the flow of illegal drugs out of the country.


"That's a major move forward for us," he noted.


"We were the first western nation into China, in Beijing almost a decade ago, and now we've got a second office opening in Guangzhou which is purely aimed at the amphetamine traffic coming to Australia."

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/071023/9/258q.html