Pubdate: Thu, 3 Dec 1998
Source: West Australian, The (Australia)
Page: 13
Contact: FAX: +61 8 94823830
Author: S. Garnett-Baker, South Fremantle

HEROIN KILLED MY PARTNER

Rosco Woods comments about Dr George O'Neil and the naltrexone program
(Letters, 1/12) were a waste of space in your newspaper.

Mr Woods can quote results from symposiums in Sydney all he wants, but he
can't hide the results that Dr O'Neil has achieved.

He is all and more than Norman Aisbett revealed in his Big Weekend report
(A trial for life, 28/11).

I am a heroin window.  My partner stopped taking his naltrexone weeks
before his fatal hit.  If he had continued taking the naltrexone that hit
would not have killed him.

Mr Woods, you need to understand that heroin kills addicts. Naltrexone
blocks opiates.

Dr O'Neil, his wife and staff were available to us 24 hours a day, always
caring, always loving and always willing to help.

Mr Woods, symposiums aren't helping junkies.  Go to Dr O'Neil's clinic and
see what Norman Aisbett saw.  You, I have no doubt, will walk away from the
clinic a less critical human being and you may want the Federal Minister to
change his mind.

You say that "the Federal Minister for Health is right not to be impressed
by naltrexone."

I am not impressed by heroin and its dealers and the fact that the police
have done nothing to stop my partner's dealer.

Have a symposium on that subject.  Stop the dealers and support the good guys.

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