LIFE AND DEATH IN THE NEEDLE

MPs' Jabs Miss The Point

An addict's death, just after the injecting room in the Cross closed its
doors on the first day, underscores the need for the clinic, says Peter
FitzSimons.

Somewhere about 11.30 on Sunday night a man died. Young man. Blue jeans.
Addict. Overdose. Three or four friends hovering. Stricken. Paralysed by
grief and their own ineffectuality. Sirens. Police. Ambulance. Attempted
resuscitation. Dead.

It happened on the streets of Kings Cross. On Darlinghurst Road. About 60
metres from the newly opened safe injecting room - about 90 minutes after
it closed its doors after completing its first four-hour stint.

Who that young man was, why he was on drugs, how he misjudged the dosage,
we'll never know. But we can safely say this: the tragedy of his death was
not only for a young life wasted. It was that, as of Sunday night in Sydney
town, such deaths are more unnecessary than ever. For from the moment the
safe injecting room opened, all those who have loved ones hooked on heroin
out on the streets could take some solace that there was more chance this
week than last they would survive.

In that first stint, eight addicts used the facilities and, under strict
medical supervision were administered the drug. In Switzerland, where safe
injecting rooms have been widespread for more than a decade, drug overdoses
in the gutter are practically a thing of the past. The hopes of us all
surely must be that this trial will be embraced, acclaimed, and encouraged
to keep its doors open for even longer. But will it be so acclaimed? One
who spoke on the subject yesterday was the Opposition Leader, Kerry
Chikarovski. "I've said all along," she told ABC Radio, "that personally I
believe the money that's been involved in that project would be better
spent on rehabilitation - getting people off drugs rather than helping them
continue with their addiction."

Respectfully, Mrs Chikarovski, you missed the point. One of the key aims of
the injecting rooms is to not only keep the addicts alive long enough to
rehabilitate them, but to give counsellors a chance to get to them and turn
them around. And seeing as you want to talk about the money involved, let's
explore it. Even leaving aside the insane waste of millions of dollars in a
"war against drugs", with drugs cheaper, purer and more available than
ever, let's look at the cost of the injecting room. It cost money. But what
are the costs of having the police called out for drug deaths? How much to
have ambulances running every which way to those who overdose? And where,
ultimately, is the money better spent?

But let's go back to that young man in Darlinghurst Road. We still don't
know why he took the drugs, but we know his need for them was so great he
risked death to inject them. Can any of us really believe for a moment
that, as so many advocate, putting a heavier penalty on taking drugs would
have dissuaded him? "Zero tolerance!" they cry. "Let's make it FIVE years
in prison!"

After all, as someone wrote: "It defies understanding, that the
self-administration of drugs should be a criminal offence. Isn't the user
doing enough self-harm without having a criminal penalty loaded on top?"

Who wrote that? Some leftist liberal ratbag writing from his ivory tower?
Actually, it was Nicholas Cowdrey QC, the Director of the Department of
Public Prosecutions, the top law enforcer in the State. It was in his book
"Getting Justice Wrong" and he goes further:

"The connection between heroin use and crime must be weakened if not
broken. The only effective way of doing that is to reduce, if not
eliminate, the profits generated by the trade. In part, this is an economic
argument, thirst for money motivates most criminals. Make heroin free to
addicted users on prescription by licensed medical practitioners."

This from a bloke whose highest responsibility is to preserve law and order
in this State. Nothing, of course, will bring the young man back. But just
such a policy as that might have prevented his death.

In the meantime, at a bare minimum, let us all support the injecting room
and let them get on with it.