A WRONG STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

By any calculation, the decision by Wesley Central Mission to set up a
$500,000 heroin injecting room in Little Lonsdale Street well ahead of the
formal consultation process and before even the Bracks Government's enabling
legislation had been released was unfortunate. The Melbourne City Council's
rejection of the facility on Tuesday night has only given succor to
opponents of the government's trial injecting room program. Wesley got ahead
of the game and tried to influence the agenda by establishing its centre in
an attempt to, as one of its own representatives put it, "demystify"
injecting rooms.

According to Wesley, it was encouraged to do so by the former Kennett
government. Wesley's undoubted good intentions also would have contributed
to its overzealous construction of the room. However, even the state's
foremost advocate of injecting rooms, David Penington, last week cast doubt
on the efficacy of the Little Lonsdale Street room, saying it did not
necessarily conform to his proposed protocols. Health Minister John Thwaites
has also distanced the government from the Wesley injecting room,
criticising the church for going ahead without gaining the council's
support. But opponents of injecting rooms, who too often seem to believe
that shouting down or denigrating those with a different view is a viable
form of argument, should not draw too much comfort from the council's
decision.

The council appears to have made its choice as much because it was upset
about Wesley's approach to public relations as the actual efficacy of the
church's state-of-the-art facility. Seen in its true context, the Wesley
facility was an aberration; the campaign to give the government's trial
proposal a chance goes on. Of course, as Premier Steve Bracks has pointed
out, the injecting room program must be but one small part of a broader
anti-heroin strategy. The government, fighting a perception that the courts
are too lenient on drug pushers, is now examining the possibility of harsher
penalties for dealers. Mr Bracks was wise to use last weekend's state ALP
conference to warn Labor supporters that his government was prepared to
accept some damage to its popularity for trying to introduce injecting
rooms. The proposal will surely fall if the Premier does not attempt to lead
the debate. At last, he appears to be putting his shoulder to the wheel on
this issue. The Liberals, who hold the majority in the upper house and thus
will decide if Labor's proposals pass into law, are right to be sceptical.
But they, too, should see the injecting rooms trial as one aspect of a more
general strategy to wind back the heroin menace. Heroin is an invidious and
worsening canker on our society. Courage by all of our elected
representatives will be needed to defeat it.