INJECTING ROOM FEARS AND REALITY

THE City of Greater Dandenong's decision to reject the Victorian
Government's proposal for a supervised heroin injecting room trial is yet
another setback for those who have hoped that the trials might save lives.
Dandenong's decision came the week after Melbourne City Council voted to
reject a fully operational centre set up by the Wesley Central Mission in
Little Lonsdale Street. Of the five municipalities nominated as suitable
for injecting room trials, only two - Yarra and Port Phillip - remain
committed to the proposal.

Melbourne and Maribyrnong have until October to vote on it, but resident
groups in both municipalities have voiced doubts about the trials.

Dandenong Council appears to be responding to strong local opposition.
Community consultation on the trial by the council involved about 1200 of
the city's 135,000 residents and according to the city's chief executive,
Warwick Heine, "90 per cent" of those consulted opposed the idea. This
result, combined with an emotional public forum on the issue, may have
persuaded Dandenong's councillors to knock back the proposal.

This is a shame. Over the past year, 226 people overdosed on heroin in
Greater Dandenong; 26 people have died of heroin overdoses in the area in
less than two years.

Springvale, a suburb in the municipality, has been identified as an area of
high injecting drug use. Supervised injecting rooms would be doing no more
than providing a safer environment for an activity that is already taking
place.

Opponents consider that to do this is to accept, and therefore condone,
heroin use. But supporters of the trials take the wider view that a
supervised addict has a greater chance of survival, and therefore of
rehabilitation, than a person left to suffer from an overdose on the street.

The Reverend Tim Costello has called for a moratorium on injecting rooms as
a way of avoiding further polarisation; but to stop the process now would
only further delay the difficult task of implementing a controversial
policy. Earlier this month the Premier, Steve Bracks, appealed for public
support on injecting rooms, declaring that he was prepared to lose votes in
his quest to find a better remedy for the state's drug problem.

His statement recognised that this issue requires decisive leadership - and
this may yet come from those councils prepared to approve injecting rooms.

But before they can go ahead, the approval of a tentative State Opposition
is also required.

The Liberals have said they will make their decision on the trials before
Parliament resumes in August. It is to be hoped that they will allow the
experiment to take place: injecting rooms will not solve the problem of
heroin addiction, but they are an acknowledgement that new ways of dealing
with its effects must be found.