DEFERRAL WILL COST LIVES: MOORE

Heroin users who could have been saved by Canberra's supervised-injecting
room would die while they waited out a delay negotiated by the ACT
Government to resolve the Budget impasse, ACT Health Minister Michael Moore
said yesterday.

Labelling the Legislative Assembly a "sand-pit", Mr Moore blamed the ACT
Opposition for blocking the Budget and allowing the proposal to fall through.

Opposition Leader Jon Stanhope said the blame rested with Mr Moore, who had
"rolled over".

The move also met with criticism from Families and Friends for Drug Law
Reform president Brian McConnell, who said he was "angry and disappointed"
by the decision.

Mr Moore had hoped to have the injecting room operating in Civic by August.
The plan was deferred until the next election, in October 2001, after Chief
Minister Kate Carnell held talks with dissenting Independents on Monday.

Maureen Cane, executive director of Assisting Drug Dependents Inc, which
had been chosen to operate the injecting room, said the deferral would
leave a "gap" in services for drug users.

"Our current services [in the needle exchange] will continue, so in a sense
the organisation carries on," Ms Cane said. "This was a new service and now
that it won't happen for a while, it simply means the gap in services will
remain."

Mr Moore, who was "extraordinarily disappointed" by the deferral, said the
decision had been made and he would now focus on implementing the rest of
the government's drug policy.

He had not decided whether he would re-contest the next election and see
the proposal put back before the Assembly next year.

"Let me also say even more disappointing I think is having watched the
antics of the last week," Mr Moore said. "You know how the NSW Parliament
is described as the bear pit, I have to say that the ACT Assembly over the
last week would be best described as a sandpit.

"It's a huge disappointment to me, and I think members of the Assembly
should look at themselves and see what they've done, how they've dug
themselves down into that sand pit . . . in the interim some people will
die who I believe could have been saved."

Mr McConnell said the lives of drug users and their families were at stake
in the delay.

"It's an anxious moment for parents whose son or daughter is using, and
they know they're using, and they're using in unsafe conditions," he said.
"It's not as if people aren't using at the moment, it's not as if they're
not using in dark, secret places.

"It's very disappointing that we think that we're almost there and think we
have some chance of saving these lives, but it's snatched away at the last
minute. It's an unbelievable frustration."

President of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia Professor Ian
Webster also criticised the ACT Government and the Independents over the
deferral.

"People continue to die in the ACT from heroin overdoses. We must trial
innovative approaches," Professor Webster said.

However, National Party member for Monaro Peter Webb welcomed the
Government's decision.

"There was a lot of concern amongst local residents with the ACT
Government's 'green light' to drug liberalisation," he said.

It has been estimated that there are between 600 and 800 heroin overdoses
in the ACT each year.