SYDNEY, HOPING TO HELP ADDICTS, OPENS LEGAL INJECTION CENTER

Heroin addicts in this city's most notorious drug den, an area called
King's Cross, used to rent rooms for 15 to 30 minutes at a time in shooting
galleries, cheap hotels that sometimes also sold drugs and syringes.

The police cracked down five years ago. It did not end the problem, but
simply moved it into parks and back streets where, to the aggravation of
residents, syringes were left tossed on sidewalks or discarded under trees.
Overdoses, in fact, have been on the rise.

The government, desperate to improve the situation and after months of
legal challenges, this week allowed a former pinball hall in the heart of
King's Cross to open as Australia's first legal and medically supervised
injecting center.

Advocates like the Reverend Ray Richmond, of the nearby Wayside Chapel,
said he hoped the center would ''meet some of the users' needs, but also
meet the needs of the community.''

But advocates are cautious in describing the center's mission and the ills
that it will not or cannot cure, like drug-related crime, and even the drug
use itself.

''The main purpose of the injecting center is a harm-minimization measure,
'' explained the Reverend Harry Herbert, executive director of Uniting
Care, the church-affiliated group that is operating the center, which is
paid for by the government.

''Some of our supporters tend to overemphasize what the center will
achieve,'' he added. ''If they set the bar too high, we'll never climb over
that.''

Though new to Australia, medically supervised injecting centers are not a
new idea in other parts of the world. Over the past decade, 45 have been
set up in Europe, including in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In
Frankfurt, deaths from overdose fell by one quarter in the three years
after that city's program started.

The purpose of such centers is primarily to provide a safe place for
addicts to inject drugs. Australian research has found more than 80
percent of those who shoot up in public would prefer to use a supervised
center. And, according to an independent survey last year, 71 percent of
people who live and work in King's Cross support the center there.

The center opened Sunday night, and according to its medical director, Dr.
Ingrid van Beek, eight addicts used it during the first shift. Within a
month or so, the center will be open for a pair of four-hour shifts daily.

Inside the building, which has a security guard, visitors enter a reception
room that looks like a doctor's office. Users must be at least 18 years old
and provide medical staff with information about themselves and their drug
taking before being registered. The center will be restricted to those
registered, and no one drunk or pregnant will be allowed to inject drugs.

A second area inside resembles an examining room, with stainless-steel
countertops and sterile equipment. Specially trained nurses will hand out
needles and swabs to users who will sit at one of eight booths, which offer
privacy, but also allow staff members to monitor activity. The center has
oxygen supplies and other materials required in case of an overdose.

In a separate lounge with an adjoining counseling room, staff will be able
to offer information about treatment and social services, like housing
assistance.

The center's presence, which was first authorized in legislation passed by
the state legislature in 1999, has been opposed by local businesses. The
King's Cross Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, which failed in a lawsuit to
stop the center from opening, says it is already harming business.

The legislation that permitted the center to open also requires an
independent panel to evaluate its effects regularly, as critics fear the
center will only increase the flow of drugs to the area and exacerbate
associated problems.

''It's going to be a disaster,'' said Malcolm Duncan, the chamber's senior
vice president. ''We can only see things getting worse.''