DAMNED LIES AND A STUDY OF JUNKIES

THE Carr Government has shamelessly extended the licence of its Kings Cross
shooting gallery and sidelined new-chum Opposition Leader John Brogden who
locked his supporters into a disgracefully uninformed conscience vote on
the issue, writes PIERS AKERMAN.

The reality is that the shooting gallery's much touted 12-month performance
evaluation just does not stand up to scrutiny. This was only to be expected
as all similar centres internationally have run into problems assessing
their effectiveness.

At a cost to taxpayers of $5.6 million, the centre is unable to prove that
it has cut drug overdose deaths as effectively as other states which have
not caved into media-driven middle-class guilt.

In Victoria, where the Government has not given junkies a green light,
overdose deaths have dropped from 359 in 1999, to 49 in 2001, to just 11 at
the most recent count this year.

In Western Australia, another state where junkies are not given the benefit
of a purpose-built taxpayer-funded shooting gallery, overdose deaths
dropped from 82 in 2000, to 36 in 2001 to just three so far this year.

In NSW, such figures are not accessible but sources say they do not reflect
a lot of difference to the general pattern. Why not?

Over the 12-month period of operation, the Kings Cross crew recorded what
it called 250 drug overdoses among 163 of its 2729 registered users. Its
statement that not a life was lost at the shooting gallery has been
trumpeted by its media supporters - but that is a meaningless statistic
too, as ambulances whisked the seven people who needed major intervention
to hospital for treatment.

A more meaningful number might be 17,937 - that is the number of needles
and syringes given away on 2175 occasions (an average of 8.25 per
customer), which would surely indicate that the shooting gallery is a very
poor last choice of destination for the majority of junkies who prefer to
shoot-up where they want, when they want.

Another number which goes to heart of the shooting gallery is 5170 - that
is the number of times advice was given to the centre's users on how to
shoot-up. Almost three times as many people (55 per cent) sought advice on
how to be a junkie than the next most popular request (19 per cent) for
information on common themes such as drug use, living skills, relationship
and custody issues.

Oh, yes, the 252 given advice on actual drug treatment made up just 3 per
cent of the centre's customers and the 162 who received drug and alcohol
information constituted just 2 per cent of clients.

But hey, the Carr Government is prepared to tip in $5.6 million, or about
$15,300-a-day of your money to keep this show rolling, so why should you worry?

There are also some observations on the effect of the shooting gallery on
the neighbourhood which beggar belief.

IT was either Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli who said there are three
kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

Crime statistician Don Weatherburn may be trying to find a fourth
definition for the rubbery evaluations of loitering, and pedestrian and
criminal activity included in the report and his personal interpretation
that heroin shortages have driven up some crime levels.

Locals claim that the number of loiterers opposite the shooting gallery has
increased and that drug dealers have moved to a location outside the Kings
Cross station from the Springfield mall but that the survey did not include
them.

They say that the numbers of pedestrians has decreased and that criminal
activity has increased - perhaps not in the immediate area but certainly in
neighbouring suburbs such as Paddington and Woollahra as Rose Bay police
are well aware.

It is certainly difficult to see how the number of pedestrians in the
neighbourhood could not have dropped since the Government invited the
junkies in last May.

After all, eight hotels have closed since October 2000, and the loss of
their staff, let alone the well publicised decline in the number of
international tourists since September 11 should have made some difference.

By any standards, the methodology for the so-called evaluation was
laughable, the bulk of the data on the centre's activities coming from the
junkies themselves who are, as is widely recognised, almost pathologically
incapable of telling the truth.