SYDNEY DRUG TRIALS HAVE HUMANE AIMS

Although based on much misinformation, the editorial "Legalising drugs will
cure nothing" (Aug 22), is a welcome commentary on recent responses to
illicit drugs in Australia.

The decision by the New South Wales state government to permit a rigorous
scientific trial of a medically supervised injecting room was not made
lightly. It developed from a recommendation of the 1997 NSW royal
commission into police corruption. A clear majority of parliamentarians and
invited experts supported such a trial after listening carefully to
arguments for and against the proposal at a special major drug summit in
Sydney held in 1999.

This decision reflects a preparedness to respond to the world as it really
is rather than the world as we would like it to be. It has nothing to do
with the legalisation of drugs. Similar trials are being considered
seriously in Canberra and Melbourne.

Illicit drugs will not be provided in the Sydney centre and staff will not
assist the administration of illicit drugs. Staff however will assist drug
users who collapse, and try and save their lives.

Drug overdose deaths in Australia increased from only six in 1964 to 737 in
1998. Almost half of these deaths occur in the state of New South Wales
(which has one-third of the national population). Many of these deaths have
occurred in the vicinity of the proposed trial. I was part of a group that
briefly ran an illegal injecting room in a church in 1999 to help draw
attention to the need for this trial.

For over a decade, criminals operated a dozen of more illegal shooting
galleries in the area where the official trial is now to be held. The aims
of the injecting room are to reduce overdose deaths, the spread of
infections linked to drug injecting and injecting in public places. It is
hoped that the injecting room will also assist injecting drug users to
enter treatment. These are humane and worthy objectives. They deserve
widespread support. More than three-quarters of residents in the
neighbourhood support injecting rooms.

There are over 40 medically supervised injecting rooms in Europe. There has
not been a single death in any of these centres which first began operating
in 1986. In many European cities where such injecting rooms operate, drug
overdose deaths have declined and the quality of life for neighbourhood
residents has improved. Drug overdose deaths declined in Switzerland (where
the first injecting room was established) from 419 in 1992 to 209 in 1998.
Local communities and police support injecting rooms.

According to official figures, the overwhelming majority (84%) of
government expenditure in Australia in response to illicit drugs is
allocated to law enforcement efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs.
Yet deaths, disease, crime and corruption have flourished. Despite
increasing the severity of penalties and expanding drug squads, illicit
drugs in Australia are becoming cheaper, purer and more available.

Many thoughtful Australians now reject the notion that we can arrest and
imprison our way out of the current situation, although the current
Australian prime minister is still a prohibition true believer. Faced with
the resounding failure of current drug policy, we have to try new
approaches. Injecting rooms in Europe appear to have succeeded. Little
wonder that they are being carefully evaluated in Australia. Whether
Thailand one day carries out a similar trial should be decided only by the
people of Thailand.

Dr Alex Wodak, Director, Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincent's Hospital,
Sydney