FEAR USERS NOT FREE FROM ARREST

The Government's injecting rooms legislation was badly flawed as it did not
protect users from arrest, a drug expert said yesterday.

The director of the Centre for Harm Reduction in Melbourne, Nick Crofts,
said users walking to and from the facility were liable to be arrested by
police.

Dr Crofts, who interviewed users for the Penington report, said the message
from users was that "safe injecting rooms" meant "safe from the police".

"Everybody agrees that these things ... need to be located not within a
dealing area but close to a dealing area. That means there's got to be
travel from the dealing area to the safe injecting room," he said.

"You've got a policeman out there who hasn't got his quota of arrests - all
he has to do is position himself there. And that's a killer."

He said assurances from Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie that police would use
discretion when making arrests near the facilities was worrying. "Police are
going to assess the bona fides (of users) on the basis of prejudice ...
There's no control over that aspect of it," Dr Crofts said.