DRUG MIXERS SPIKE NURSE'S WORKLOAD

NINE out of 10 of Beaver Hudson's psychiatric patients arrive with a
cocktail of drugs in their bodies that would make Rolling Stone Keith
Richards blush.

St Vincent's Hospital, where Mr Hudson works, is right in the middle
of Sydney's drug scene. Described as drug-psychosis central, it is
about to open a ward dedicated to the burgeoning number of
drug-related psychiatric patients.

Mr Hudson, an emergency psychiatric nurse who has been at St
Vincent's since 1998, has seen more than the typical variety of
cases. From street walkers to stockbrokers, St Vincent's catchment
area handles them all.

"Our area is what could be described as a very rich demographic," he said.

The Weekend Australian reported a disturbing link between drug use
and psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. Federal parliamentary
secretary for health Christopher Pyne, who has oversight on drugs,
lashed the states' relaxed cannabis laws on the weekend.

Mr Hudson says it is common for a patient to arrive having taken
ecstasy, methamphetamine, the animal tranquilliser ketamine,
marijuana, various prescription drugs and alcohol, and then having
tried to wash it out of their systems with purgatory drugs.

"Nine times out of 10, people are poly-substance abusers," he said.
Many arrive extremely depressed, hearing voices or unpredictably
violent -- and maybe all three.

The hospital's statistics show that a huge increase in amphetamine
use has resulted in a spike in drug-related cases handled by the
Emergency ward -- from 200 in 1999 to 1600 last year, relating to
methamphetamine alone.

St Vincent's director of mental health, Peter McGeorge, said
availability was the problem.

"As the heroin supplies have diminished, people have turned to
amphetamines as an alternative," he said.

"They're shooting it up and snorting it the same way as they would
have with heroin."

Dr McGeorge said the increased potency of marijuana and the tendency
of drug users to take more than one drug had contributed to the rise
in emergency psychiatric cases at the hospital.

Dr McGeorge and Mr Hudson believe the new unit's greatest impact
could be on getting treatment and early intervention to young drug
users at a very early stage.

"The people that we worry about are youth. We'll be able to offer an
alternative and get the family in, the general practitioner and drug
and alcohol counsellors," Dr McGeorge said.