This is a transcript of PM broadcast at 1800 AEST on local radio. Victorian police have made a controversial intervention in the heroin debate. They've made a direct link between an 18 per cent rise in robberies and the heroin drought.
Police say a lack of heroin and a decrease in purity are forcing addicts to commit more robberies.
On the other hand, far fewer addicts are overdosing. But as John Stewart reports, the assumption that reducing the supply of illicit drugs will produce better social results, is now being questioned. Since December last year police and drug user groups have reported a dramatic decline in the supply of heroin throughout Australia. One of the up-sides of the heroin drought in Victoria has been a massive decline in overdose deaths. But now there's a down-side.