GERMANY LEGALISES INJECTION ROOMS

BERLIN: Germany’s Parliament yesterday legalised drug injection rooms
that have sprouted in German cities to provide addicts with clean
needles, reversing a policy upheld by the former conservative government.

The upper house approved a compromise law that won crucial support
from some conservative-led states by emphasising that addicts who get
the needles also need counselling. The lower house had passed the
measure on Friday.

Authorities have tolerated 13 so-called "shooting galleries" in major
German cities for some time, but the rooms have been technically illegal.

Germany’s governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens hailed
the new law as a "turnaround toward a humane and progressive drug
policy". Conservative politicians argued it encouraged addiction as
well as drug sales outside the rooms.

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s conservative government, in power from
1982 until 1998, had refused to legalise the rooms.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government says drug-related deaths
have declined in German cities that have injection rooms, which also
exist in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain.

Two conservative-ruled states broke ranks in the vote in the upper
house, where states are represented. Among them was Hesse, which has
long experience with injection rooms in Frankfurt.

But Berlin’s top public security official, Eckhart Werthebach,
insisted he wants to keep the capital free of shooting galleries.

Germany’s move came despite criticism of the concept by UN experts in
a report this week. The International Narcotics Control Board said
governments risked violating international drug control treaties by
allowing shooting galleries.