NEEDLE PROGRAM ANGERS MAYOR

PORT Lincoln Hospital will run a free needle exchange program for drug
users and the town's mayor, Peter Davis, is furious.

"I object to offering handouts to drug addicts," Mr Davis said
yesterday.

He said addicts should go to shooting galleries where they could be
given "three times the lethal dose".

"I don't see why the tax-paying community should be effectively held
to ransom by the drug industry."

People who supported the program were idealists and dreamers, he said.

"We don't need the riff-raff; game's over."

Mr Davis said staff at the hospital feared the program would
jeopardise their personal safety.

They had also questioned why drug addicts should receive free needles
when diabetics and others had to pay for theirs.

A Port Lincoln Health Services spokesman said the needle exchange
program would be evaluated after a six-month trial period.

The program would be modelled on similar programs in other parts of
the state, in consultation with the Drug and Alcohol Services Council.

"Needle exchange services have existed for many years in Port
Lincoln," the spokesman said.

"The Port Lincoln Health Services, being a public health facility,
recognises its responsibilities in needing to assess through the trial
whether a similar program should be run from the health service."