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Victoria's
most senior drug investigator has called for prescription
heroin for long-term addicts and supervised injecting
room trials.
Detective
Chief Inspector John McKoy, who retired yesterday as
head of the drug squad, said he had reluctantly concluded
that the steps were necessary. `This goes against my
training, upbringing and beliefs but I believe we have
to look at these alternatives,' he said.
'Prescription
heroin would save a heck of a lot of lives and would
reduce other crime problems dramatically.'
'What
we are doing is not working and we have to try to find
a better way. I firmly believe the government should
try at least one safe injecting house and see how it
goes.'
Mr
McKoy said that police could easily arrest twice the
number of drug traffickers, but the courts and prisons
could not handle the volume. `If we had another 200
full-time drug investigators we could use them, but
the system couldn't cope. The system is already choked
. . . '
In
a wide-ranging interview with The Age on the
eve of his retirement, Mr McKoy said narcotics syndicates
had greater resources than the drug squad. The explosion
in drug trafficking in the past few years was partially
due to mid-1990s government cuts in resources for the
Federal Police, Customs and the drug squad.
He
said police intelligence indicated:
•
An explosion in designer drugs, including a dangerous
amphetamines tablet made in Thailand, known as Shaboo.
•
The lucrative anabolic steroid trade would continue
to grow after the Sydney Olympics.
•
International amphetamines syndicates would move into
Australia because of the success of the drug squad in
closing local laboratories.
•
A massive increase in the availability of heroin as
record opium crops in Afghanistan supplemented the Southeast
Asian supplies.
•
Some drug traffickers had turned over tens of millions
of dollars in Australian casinos in just 12 months.
Mr
McKoy, the longest-serving senior drug squad investigator
in Australia, said judges were not reflecting community
concerns when sentencing traffickers.
`The
law allows for a 25-year sentence for trafficking a
commercial quantity, yet the highest I've seen is 11
years. When a major trafficker gets a minimum of four
years when the maximum is 25 years then to me it is
not a deterrent.'
Mr
McKoy, who joined the drug squad in 1989 and took over
the squad in 1995, said the quantity and purity of heroin
in Melbourne had spiralled in recent years.
`In
1992 our undercover operatives could buy an ounce (28.3
grams) of heroin around 20 percent pure for $10,000.
A few years later an ounce of between 80 to 90 percent
pure could be bought for $6000 to $8000,' Mr McKoy said.
`In
the early 1990s our undercovers were buying ounces of
heroin but now they are offered blocks (354 grams) for
between $50,000 and $80,000.
`This
has effectively priced the drug squad out of the market
because we could not afford to make undercover buys
on a regular basis.'
Mr
McKoy, who served 11 years in the drug squad, said the
first step to try to slow the flow of heroin into Australia
was effective barrier control.
`That
is clearly a Federal Government responsibility,' he
said. He said the Customs Service had a budget of $573
million but its priority was revenue raising rather
than drug detection.
`Perhaps
the Customs budget should match that of the Victoria
Police of around $1 billion,' he said.
Mr
McKoy said many of the heroin addicts he had seen were
`well-educated people' who were brought up in loving
family environments. No one is immune from the problem.
`Heroin is making criminals out of people who would
otherwise be valuable members of society.'
Health
Minister John Thwaites said Mr McKoy's support for a
supervised injecting room should sway people who doubted
the value of the initiative.
`I
think it is significant that someone with his experience
would express these views,' Mr Thwaites said. `The current
system doesn't have all the answers and we must be prepared
to trial alternatives.'
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