HEROIN USERS NEED IMMEDIATE HELP

If there is an issue that desperately needs a bipartisan political
response, it is the problem of heroin abuse.

It is heartening, then, that a joint delegation of Victorian MPs has been
touring the world on a fact-finding mission to learn about overseas
responses to the drug problem.

It is less heartening to hear that they have returned still holding
philosophical differences about how best to approach the problem.

The parliamentary secretary to the Premier, Bruce Mildenhall, the
opposition health spokesman, Robert Doyle, and the chief executive of
VicHealth, Rob Moodie, have yet to formally report their assessments of
legal and medical responses to heroin abuse in Europe and America. But Mr
Moodie has suggested that any supervised injecting rooms set up in Victoria
should offer accommodation, food, clothes, counselling and medical care for
users, a concept dubbed the "heroin hotel". The flip nickname should not be
allowed to disguise the innate sense of the idea; welfare groups had always
envisaged injecting facilities as a way of drawing drug users into contact
with other services they need.

Premier Steve Bracks has responded with a promise to examine the proposal,
in the hope it might be supported by both major parties.

But Mr Doyle favors "drug hotels" without the drugs; that is, centres that
offer one-stop shopping for addicts' welfare needs but which have no
injecting facilities. It seems the destructive impasse over injecting rooms
remains, and with it the grim promise of continuing high rates of death by
overdose.

It is understandable that Liberal and National Party politicians, along
with sizeable sections of the community, feel revulsion at the notion of
the state in any way condoning injection of a substance that poisons lives.
Unfortunately, it remains a better choice than the alternative: risking
that those lives end altogether. While it is the most contentious issue in
the heroin debate, the provision of supervised injecting facilities is only
one aspect of a wider approach that must include prevention, law
enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation. But users in Victoria face long
waits for beds in detoxification and rehabilitation centres.

Odyssey House this week criticised the government for providing only 120
beds across the state, which means that users who decide they are ready to
face their demons must hold on to that resolve for weeks or months before
they receive professional attention; a big ask, given their physical and
emotional problems and chaotic lifestyle.

Being refused help by a society that doesn't seem to care can only increase
the feelings of worthlessness and alienation that led to their addiction in
the first place.

If heroin users attempt to take responsibility for themselves, they should
be given every support possible, as quickly as possible.

Their lives might depend upon it.