ADDICTS REVIVED IN DRUG ROOM

The Kings Cross injecting room for drug addicts the first of its kind in
the English-speaking world has assisted four people who overdosed there in
its first month, the centre's medical director Ingrid Van Beek said yesterday.

More than 300 heroin addicts have registered with the Medically Supervised
Injecting Room, which operates from a converted pinball parlor and has
extended its operating hours into the night to meet demand.

Since its quiet Sunday opening in early May, staff at the UnitingCare-run
facility have revived with oxygen four overdosed drug addicts who would
possibly have died had they shot up alone in the streets. An estimated 100
people die of drug overdoses in Kings Cross each year.

"The fact that the four people who overdosed were in a supervised situation
with qualified nursing staff who could identify the problem potentially
saved their lives," Dr Van Beek said yesterday.

The New South Wales Government has hailed the centre's first month a
success, despite a cost blowout. The 18-month trial, first expected to cost
$1.8 million, will now receive a budget of $4.3 million.

John Della Bosca, the minister overseeing the trial, said its progress had
been "very satisfactory from the government's perspective".

The minister said the facility was difficult to budget for because it was
the first of its kind in the world. He blamed the cost rise on legal
challenges and the difficulty in finding an appropriate site.

The centre, which can serve 16 people at a time, had referred 46 drug users
to other services, including treatments for drug dependence, health
education, medical care, counselling and social welfare.

Sixty per cent of the centre's clients were male and a mixture of
"street-based, homeless" addicts and those who had never before come into
contact with drug-related health treatment and services.

The seven addicts sent to drug rehabilitation and detox had not returned to
the centre, said Dr Van Beek. "I really couldn't be happier about the way
it is unfolding," she told The Age yesterday.

In its first month the centre recorded 496 "injecting episodes", which
staff said indicated clients were returning more than once. From July 7 the
centre will increase its hours to two four-hour shifts, seven days a week.

The trial, an initiative of the 1999 New South Wales Drug Summit, was
fiercely opposed by the Kings Cross Chamber of Commerce, a group of
businesses and residents who believed it would be a "honey-pot", attracting
more drug users to the area. The chamber lost its Supreme Court challenge
in April.

Police had reported no additional drug activity in the area and the centre
had not attracted drug users from other areas to Kings Cross, said Dr Van Beek.