COOL OFF CALL ON INJECTING DEBATE

Baptist Church minister, the Reverend Tim Costello, yesterday called for a
moratorium on the supervised injecting room debate to prevent further
polarisation and division within the community.

Mr Costello, who also directs the Urban Mission Unit, said a
six-to-12-month moratorium would give the Victorian Government time to win
back public confidence in its drug strategy.

To do this, legislation to set up five injecting facilities must be amended
to bolster funding for preventative drug education and rehabilitation
programs, which tackled the greater problem of combating drug use.

"We have expended so much civic and social capital on a debate that has
polarised and caused enormous distrust over what is at most 5per cent of
the answer in terms of our drug problem," he said.

He said the majority of users inject at home and were not the targeted
homeless drug user who would benefit from the facilities.

"If the public saw enough action taken on detoxification, rehabilitation
and education programs that reduced demand, then they might say supervised
injecting facilities as part of the package makes sense," he said.

The Supervised Injecting Facilities' Bill is to be debated in the spring
session of parliament.

Mr Costello said he was a reluctant supporter of the supervised facilities
because they saved lives, but at the same time sent a mixed message to the
community.

Baptist Place, behind the Collins Street Baptist Church, had become a "de
facto supervised injecting facility", attracting more than 25per cent of
heroin use in the central business district.

However, in six years, with about 1500 needles emptied from bins every two
to three days and at least one overdose in the same period, no one had died.

Mr Costello said Wesley Central Mission's failed bid to set up a facility
in the CBD had set back the debate.