INJECTING ROOM TRIAL WELCOMED

A planned trial of supervised heroin injecting rooms in Melbourne was today
welcomed by the state government, legal and medical professions but may be
thwarted by some local councils earmarked for the centres.

The federal government said it opposed the trial and the Victorian
opposition said more consultation and details were needed before it
accepted or rejected the proposal.

Victorian Health Minister John Thwaites said the Bracks government would
move to introduce legislation in state parliament during this session to
enable the trials to begin.

But the trials would only be implemented if there was support from the
communities and councils involved.

The state government backed the trials after a report from the Drug Policy
Expert Committee, chaired by Dr David Penington, recommended them and other
measures to stop the climbing death toll caused by heroin abuse.

Mr Thwaites said the fight against heroin abuse would also involve the
development of local community drug strategies and increased support
services for drug users.

'The government is leading on this issue but we need to take the community
with us and we need to take the parliament with us,' he told reporters.

Mr Thwaites said the enabling legislation would lay over until the spring
session of parliament to allow further community consultation.

If the community approved, supervised injecting rooms would be trialled for
18 months in five municipalities with high levels of drug use - Greater
Dandenong, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Port Phillip and Yarra.

Mr Thwaites said there was no fixed date for the start of the trials.

He said they would be restricted to adult drug users and the injecting
facilities would not be near schools, kindergartens or residential areas.

Mr Thwaites called on the state opposition to support the legislation
because the heroin issue was of 'fundamental significance'.

But opposition health spokesman Robert Doyle said the opposition 'still had
some concerns' about a trial of supervised injection facilities.

Mr Doyle said the drug committee had presented no model for a safe
injecting facility and offered no detail on how many facilities would be
established or who would run them.

He said introducing enabling legislation for the trials before community
consultation was premature.

Federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said the federal government
would not block the proposed trial but had 'real reservations'.

'Just as we have not intervened in the Northern Territory on mandatory
sentencing, we won't be using the external affairs powers to overrule
Victoria,' Dr Wooldridge said.

He said his greatest concern about the proposed safe injecting rooms was
the legal liabilities of the operators.

Dr Penington said a survey of people in the municipalities where the trials
would take place showed an average approval rating of 64.3 per cent.

Support in the City of Yarra was 80.6 per cent; City of Port Phillip, 77.6
per cent; City of Melbourne, 74 per cent; City of Maribyrnong, 57.1 per
cent; and City of Greater Dandenong, 45.5 per cent.

City of Yarra mayor John Phillips said his municipality wouldstrongly
support moves by the state government to establish the facilities.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Peter Costigan said 'significant' community concerns
about injecting facilities would have to be addressed before they were set up.

Maribyrnong mayor Gerard White was non-committal about his council's
position, pledging to consult the public.

But a spokeswoman for the ratepayers' group Footscray Matters, Carole
Demirdjian, said only a poll would satisfy Maribyrnong residents.

The Law Institute of Victoria welcomed the trials, saying addiction was at
last being seen as a health problem.

The council of the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association
(AMA) also backed the trials and went further by recommending a trial of
prescribed heroin for a select group of addicts.

A key welfare spokesman, Open Family Australia youth worker Les Twentyman,
said the injecting rooms would save lives and encourage users into
rehabilitation.