A sharp rise in heroin use across Melbourne’s west is outstripping drug safety programs at a faster rate than in the inner city, public health advocates warn.
Yarra Drug and Alcohol Forum chief executive Greg Denham says most clean-needle providers and prescribers of methadone – a heroin replacement dispensed from pharmacies – are centred on inner-city areas.
But Mr Denham said investment was needed most in the outer suburbs, where services were strained by strong population growth and the ”displacement effect” caused by police crackdowns pushing the heroin scourge further west.
”The displacement from Footscray, which has had a reduction in drug offences, has led to an increase in places like Sunshine where services are stretched already,” he said.
”Huge growth areas to the north and west are without enough methadone prescribers and drug and alcohol treatment providers. We really are finding it very difficult to address drug problems when these services are mostly based around the inner city.”
A HealthWest report released last month urged the state government to establish a safe-injecting facility in the western suburbs.
The report revealed the heroin scourge is ”no longer just an inner-city issue”, with demand for injecting equipment in the outer west increasing faster than anywhere else in Melbourne.
Health Department figures used in the report showed syringe distribution in the west has more than doubled in a decade, far exceeding population growth of 40 per cent.
The number of needles and syringes is higher in Melbourne’s north and south, spanning heroin hot spots Richmond, Collingwood and St Kilda. But the 10-year increase in those areas has been less than 19 per cent.
Demand for needles and syringes in Brimbank increased 211 per cent, to more than 306,000, from 2002-12. Wyndham recorded a rise of 173 per cent to 199,500 last year. Methadone demand soared 390 per cent in Melton and 165 per cent in Wyndham in the same period. More than 460 people across Melton and Wyndham are on methadone, placing a heavy burden on the four local GPs who are actively prescribing it.
HealthWest project manager James Dunne said the lack of drug safety programs in outer suburbs meant ”the cycle of drug addiction keeps going”.
”People are having to travel quite far to access GPs who prescribe methadone.
”Because large patches are going without pharmacies, that seriously affects a person’s ability to stay on the methadone program.”
The HealthWest report also urged the state government to invest more in syringe distribution and methadone programs, actively encourage GPs to prescribe methadone, and set up formal links between local health services to support drug treatment.
