AAP General News (Australia)
02-18-1999
VIC: Heroin overdose toll outstrips road toll
MELBOURNE, Feb 18 AAP - The death toll from heroin overdoses in Victoria in 1999 had
outstripped the road toll as traffickers targetted teenage girls, the Herald Sun newspaper
reported today.
The paper said 60 people had died during the first 46 days of 1999, which was 15 deaths
more than the road toll.
It said teenage girls and young women were being targetted by a network of up to 10 heroin
street markets operating across Melbourne.
More than half the ambulance attendances for overdose cases involved females, it said.
Heroin traffickers offered first-time users "freebies" to get them hooked, and were
charging between $10 and $25 for a "cap" of heroin, the paper said.
Health experts said getting heroin was easier for teenagers than getting a can of beer as
police on the streets admitted defeat in the fight against heroin, it said.
AAP gf/kr
KEYWORD: HEROIN VIC
1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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