hashtext function disappears in 7.2?

Since I upgraded from 7.0.3 to 7.2, I can't find the
sql function "hashtext".  Why has it been discontinued?

Is there some alternate new way to take a text value and
get an unique integer?  I use this as an argument to the contributed
(and invaluable!) user_write_lock_oid(int) function to manage
advisory locks on arbitrary named objects.

-- George

-- I cannot think why the whole bed of the ocean isnot one solid mass of oysters, so prolific they seem. Ah,I am
wandering!Strange how the brain controls the brain!-- Sherlock Holmes in "The Dying Detective"