DRUG EXPERTS URGE ROOM FOR YOUTH

Proposals for a trial of supervised injecting rooms yesterday drew
widespread support among drug experts, the only complaint being from
youth specialists who argued underage addicts should get the same
opportunity as adults to use them.

Excluding young people from the supervised injecting rooms could cost
lives, said Open Family youth worker Les Twentyman.

"You can't rehabilitate dead people," he said. "They (the Government)
have taken a mighty step forward but they need to bring everyone with
them."

The Government's exclusion on young people did not accord with the
recommendations of its drug policy expert committee, according to a
committee member, Margaret Hamilton, who is also the director of the
Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre.

"It's complex. I understand the politics of it (the exclusion). It
does however leave young people out on a limb," Professor Hamilton
said.

The acting executive director of the Youth Substance Abuse Service,
Fran Holgate, said she was disappointed the needs of people under 18
did not appear to have been addressed in the report and called for a
reassessment of the situation if permanent injecting facilities were
established after the trial.

Street users surveyed by the group overwhelmingly supported supervised
facilities, she said.

But the director of the Australian Drug Foundation's Centre for Youth
Drug Studies, Geoff Munro, said a trial on adult users alone was
strategically appropriate given community attitudes towards the plan.

The Victoria Police issued a statement in which Chief Commissioner
Neil Comrie acknowledged the government's intention to trial
supervised injecting facilities.

He called for unambiguous and workable legislation on the facilities,
giving police clear guidelines for day-to-day duties.

"These initiatives may, in time, prove to be of value ... but in no
circumstances can they be seen as the panacea for the whole drug
problem," Mr Comrie said.

The chief executive of Odyssey House Victoria, David Crosbie, said it
was wonderful the government was looking at fresh ways of tackling the
heroin problem but stressed firm evidence was needed on injecting
rooms if they were to become permanent.

"If you can show me that it saves lives and doesn't increase heroin
use then I'm all for it," he said.

He predicted the trial facilities would find it difficult to attract
local support; his organisation, a drug treatment and counselling
service, had met local opposition even in establishing administrative
premises.

Victorian doctors welcomed the proposed injecting facilities trial.
Overdose deaths were increasing exponentially, said the Victorian vice
president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Allan Zimet.

Hanover Welfare Services, which said in its submission to the
committee that it was prepared to run an injecting facility out of its
crisis accommodation centre in the City of Port Phillip, supported Dr
Penington's report, but said the State Government should not delay in
implementing a comprehensive drug strategy.

The Salvation Army said supervised injecting rooms were not, in
themselves, enough to help heroin addicts and keep them alive.

It said a comprehensive strategy should include an advertising
campaign aimed at drug users and offering them rehabilitation options.