WE DON'T WANT DRUG ROOMS

VICTORIANS are overwhelmingly against the idea of heroin injecting
rooms in their suburbs. More than 7150 callers contacted the Herald
Sun Voteline 96 and 90.1 per cent said no to state-sanctioned drug centres.

And a separate poll shows families and country people are the most
strongly opposed.

The strong reaction was revealed as Prime Minister John Howard
appealed to Victorian Liberals to block the drug plan.

"I hope they use whatever means at their disposal to do so," he
said.

The state Liberals have an Upper House majority.

Mr Howard rejected Drug Policy Expert Committee chairman David
Penington's claim heroin rooms saved lives.

"There is no clear evidence from overseas experience that they reduce
the drug problem," he said.

"They will get no help of any kind from the Federal
Government."

Mr Howard called on local communities to use their power of veto over
the heroin rooms.

The Herald Sun survey revealed different levels of support across the
city and state.

Generally, 40 per cent of Victorians supported the rooms compared with
35 per cent of people nationally.

Fifty-one per cent of single people aged 40 or under backed the
rooms.

So did 47 per cent of inner-Melbourne residents.

But 43 per cent of people who are under 40 and have partners said
injecting rooms were unacceptable.

Support among people in the outer-metropolitan suburbs dropped to 39
per cent.

Only 35 per cent of country people gave their support.

The statistics were compiled exclusively for the Herald Sun by
AustraliaSCAN, a research group that tracks shifts in social attitude
and lifestyles.

The under-25 age group was most likely not to have an opinion on
injecting rooms.

"There is clearly a large group of people saying it (injecting houses)
is worth a try," AustraliaSCAN partner David Chalke said.

"They're saying let's get it off the streets, even if it doesn't
necessarily fix the problem."

The research was based on interviews with 2000 people and included
group discussions.

Mr Chalke described country Victoria as being more traditional in its
outlook.

He said the research had shown Victorians were sympathetic towards
drug users.

But they had little time for dealers.

"While they find the notion of hard drugs quite hateful they tend to
feel sympathy for the individual user," Mr Chalke said.

But Mr Howard said the best way to show sympathy for users was to
provide medical and psychological help 96 not injecting rooms.

"I think we should be putting more and more resources into
rehabilitation," he said.

"I think they send the wrong signal. They give a degree of
acceptability to drug use which I don't support. They create local
difficulties as far as the location of them is concerned.

"They have the potential to attract criminal elements to areas where
they do not now go.

"Overall, I think they say to the world, well, we've given up trying
to persuade people not to start taking drugs."