DRUG INJECTING ROOM `NOT REGULATED'

AUSTRALIA'S first heroin injecting room is operating without any government
control.The controversial centre, in Darlinghurst Rd, Kings Cross, has been
operating since last Sunday.

But the Carr Government confirmed yesterday there were no regulations in
place governing what went on inside it.

When laws were passed in 1999 allowing the injecting room to be set up, the
legislation provided for strict regulations directing how the centre should
be run. Those regulations have never been passed.

"The provision for regulations was put in the legislation just in case we
wanted to regulate the room," a spokesman for Special Minister of State
John Della Bosca said.

"It gives the Government the power to regulate the injecting room, to
restrict its operating hours or to say who runs it.

"But there has been no need for the regulations, because we're very happy
with the way the Uniting Church is running the centre."

The legislation provided for sweeping regulations covering how the centre
should be managed, how people using the centre should behave, what staff
are needed to run the room and the qualifications people should have to
work there.

Opposition police spokesman Andrew Tink said the injecting room was an
18-month trial that could involve risks to the community.

He said Kings Cross police needed publicly available regulations so they
knew precisely what conduct was legal or illegal at the centre.

"A trial, by definition, involves something that's new and different --
something that carries risk and may or may not work.

"In that light, it's fundamentally in the public interest that all the
rules and regulations governing this experiment should be put in place.

"The way the situation stands, with no regulations, there's so much room
for argument over what the rules are, what can go on there and what can go
on around there.

"Where there is a major change to a criminal law on an experimental basis,
the Government must spell out every aspect of how things are going to work.

"It shouldn't be left to the public and the police to have to guess what's
acceptable and what isn't."

Kings Cross Chamber of Commerce president Paul Haege said he was stunned
that the regulations had not been put in place.

"I think the local residents would take great comfort from seeing these
regulations passed so they had a better idea of what was going on," Mr
Haege said.

Mr Della Bosca's spokesman said the Government would put the regulations in
place if deemed necessary.