INJECTING CENTRE HAS EARLY SUCCESS

Australia's first legal heroin injecting room saved 36 people from
overdoses in its first three months of operation, the centre's operators
said yesterday.

Run by the Uniting Church, the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre opened
in Sydney's Kings Cross in May.

Medical director Ingrid van Beek said the centre was catering for up to 100
people a day and had 831 registered users.

"We've managed 36 overdoses and that was a combination of heroin and
cocaine," Dr van Beek said.

"We've referred 258 people into various health and social welfare services,
about half of which were into drug treatment services such as detox."

While the centre was still in the early stages of its 18-month trial, the
results already were better than expected, the doctor said.