A prominent Australian legal figure has suggested that heroin dealers be charged with murder or manslaughter if someone dies.
Mr Justice James Wood, a Sydney Royal Commissioner, made the comment in response to the seizure of 60 capsules of high-grade heroin from a Kings Cross cafe this week.
His comments could open up another front in Sydney's desperate battle to contain growing heroin dangers.
Authorities have repeatedly warned that potentially-fatal, very pure heroin is now being sold. Its availability has been attributed to last year's surge in opium production in the Golden Triangle areas of Burma, Laos and Thailand - the source of about 75 per cent of the city's heroin.
Officers say heroin of up to 85 per cent purity has been found in Sydney with mixtures of more than 50 per cent not uncommon.
The purity of the heroin seized in last week's cafe raid was 30 per cent - potentially fatal to a user accustomed to heroin of normal street strength.