NO 'SAFE' METHOD

Editor,

I read with interest a Tamworth newspaper editorial column dated January 11
regarding the unfortunate ironman, Jonathan Crowe, who stepped on a used
syringe on a Victorian beach.

The last paragraph I thought summed up the situation adequately.

And I quote: "And as for relying on the conscience and goodwill of a drug
addict to dispose of his syringe in a thoughtful and community-minded way,
we also await the safe arrival of the pigs scheduled to touch down at
Tullamarine."

It is well documented by rehabilitated addicts that when a user needs a fix
they need a fix: not in 30 minutes, not in 20 minutes, not in 10 minutes,
but now.

The suggestion that a 'safe injecting room' at Kings Cross would attract
addicts to walk half a kilometre, catch a bus, get a taxi, drive 20
minutes, catch a train to get a fix is just ridiculous.

I have seen them myself shooting up within a 10 minute walk of the
injecting room in Frankfurt, Germany.

It appears the New South Wales injecting room trial has just managed to
satisfy the drug culture in Sydney.

Of course they would be hoping for many more to be installed in the future
and then after that I suspect, free heroin for all addicts.

I finish by quoting a paragraph from a recent Sun-Herald editorial.

I quote: "The conclusion of State Parliament's special drugs summit was
that we should set up a safe injecting room and review the consequences.

"Weeks and months of extraordinary dithering have followed. There have been
interventions from as far afield as the Pope and the Prime Minister.

"The community's disquiet is palpable. No one is comfortable with the idea
that addictive and dangerous drugs are to be administered virtually in the
name of the law.

"And what are the police, charged with countering the growing drug menace,
supposed to do during this trial?

"Their position is dangerously ambiguous."

Warren WH Woodley
President
Australian Cities Against Drugs