INJECTION SITE TURNS TO CLINIC

WESLEY Central Mission's once doomed heroin facility could be saved under a
surprise compromise plan to treat city addicts.It could now be used as a
primary drug health clinic to treat heroin users around the notorious
Russell St drug zone.

Drug adviser Professor David Penington has backed the idea if the deeply
divided Melbourne City Council rejects a heroin injection facility.

He said the Wesley site could be used as a full drug clinic but not as a
place to inject.

The revelation came as Labor leader Kim Beazley yesterday changed his mind
on the issue of testing legalised heroin, saying he now supports the idea.

He said he also backed supervised heroin injecting rooms and subsidised
Naltrexone programs.

A United Nations report has condemned the Federal Government's inability to
stop states and territories from establishing supervised injecting rooms.

Released by the Federal Government, the International Narcotics Control
Board report notes: "The policy in Australia to reduce harm caused by drugs
has, unfortunately, not led to a reduction of drug abuse and trafficking
during the last decade."

Mr Beazley admitted there would be potential legal problems with a trial of
legalised heroin.

But he said: "You've got to try a whole range of things to get people
unhooked."

Dr Penington said any injection clinic should be away from Russell St,
possibly at the Spencer St end of town. But the Wesley site was ideally
placed for a health clinic as part of a broad agenda to provide better
health and overdose services across the state.

"If in fact the MCC decides not to go ahead with an injection facility then
the answer might well be a primary health care facility for drug users on
the Wesley site," he said.

Dr Penington described the controversy over the Wesley site as a "debacle"
but the building was ideally placed to perform all the functions except
injecting.

Services that could be offered in a primary health clinic include needle
exchange, methadone treatment, counselling and basic medical treatment.

The idea would be to encourage users into the health system so their
addictions can be treated as a medical problem.

The Wesley Central Mission site in Lonsdale St is already being used to
treat heroin users. It was the large number of overdose victims that
gathered on the site for help that led to the building of the heroin
injection clinic.

The site's chief opponent, lawyer Peter Faris, said any move to use Wesley
as a drug health facility would be fought.

"This is a back door injecting room," he said.

Wesley Central Mission managing director Judy Leitch said use of the site
was a matter for the mission board. But she said much of the work carried
out on the site in a portable building was to do with primary health care
matters for users.