ONLY A HANDFUL STEP INTO INJECTING ROOM

Australia's first legal heroin injecting room is open for business but so
far only a handful of addicts have used the Kings Cross centre.

The room opened in secret on Saturday night and just 11 drug users have
used the Government-sanctioned room to shoot up in since then.

Just two addicts used the room yesterday, while another turned up to
register with the centre.

The centre has already had its first success -- a 20-year-old man who shot
up in the room on Sunday night returned yesterday to be referred to a local
detox facility for buprenorphine treatment.

Uniting Church spokesman Harry Herbert called the centre's opening after
two years "a great relief".

Medical director Dr Ingrid van Beek said a large media contingent kept many
addicts away.

"We felt under those circumstances it was important to inform people ahead
of time that if they did enter the premises it was likely that they would
be photographed," she said.

The centre will operate a morning shift -- 10am to 2pm -- for a month.

But the opening of the injecting room failed to make a dent in heroin
overdoses in Kings Cross.

Since the room opened at 6pm yesterday, ambulance officers responded to at
least seven overdoses within 200m of the room. Two occurred within metres
of the room while it was closed.

At 11pm on Sunday, ambulance officers treated a man for a heroin overdose
outside the Tudor Hotel, next door to the room.

And at 6.55am yesterday, ambulance officers were again called to the Tudor
Hotel to treat a man who had overdosed inside.

Two overdoses occurred in Victoria St and one on Darlinghurst Rd.

At about 1pm yesterday, The Daily Telegraph saw ambulance officers treating
a young man collapsed in Macleay St.

In another incident a teenage girl overdosed near the Springfield Mall.

She stopped breathing and a passer-by resuscitated her. Her bag was stolen
and pockets picked while she was unconscious.

An ambulance spokesman said the number of overdoses in the Cross appeared
unchanged.

"They're normal figures," the spokesman said.

Yesterday, drug dealing in Springfield Mall was not as obvious as it has
been in the past two weeks, when The Daily Telegraph saw at least four
deals take place in an hour. Dealers could still be seen in Darlinghurst Rd.

Police have made no arrests in relation to the injecting room.

Ground Rules

* The Uniting Church-run room can handle 16 addicts at once and can host up
to 200 hits a day in two four-hour sessions

* Police have been briefed to use their discretion as to whether they
arrest people in possession of drugs near the injecting room

* Kings Cross Chamber of Commerce president Paul Haeg said there had been
twice as many addicts in the area since the room opened