RESIDENT ANGER OVER INJECTING ROOMS

RESIDENTS clashed with the operators of Australia's first legal heroin
injecting room when the site, a former pinball parlour and fast food store
in the heart of Kings Cross, was confirmed yesterday. Tensions, which had
simmered for months at community consultation meetings, boiled over outside
66 Darlinghurst Rd when the organisers of the injecting room visited the
premises.

Residents, heroin users and local business owners confronted the organisers
to complain about the choice of location, as passers-by weighed in with
their own opinions.

The Uniting Church announced the injecting room will be operating by June or
July, and is expected to service up to 200 heroin users every night between
4pm and 11pm.

The site, which has been empty for 18 months, is opposite the Kings Cross
train station, and has a bus and taxi rank outside its front door.

It has already been approved by the Police Commissioner and the
Director-General of the Department of Health.

Reverend Harry Herbert, executive director of the Uniting Church Board for
Social Responsibility, said: "The location is now fixed, two key staff have
been appointed, the only things to be dealt with now are practical matters."

He further upset residents when asked about the effect of the injecting room
on the neighbourhood.

"We're not entering an area where all the adjoining areas are squeaky clean,
and so I think that the injecting room will have no effect on that
particular section of Darlinghurst Rd," he said.

Andrew Strauss, who has worked in Darlinghurst Rd for 20 years and owns
Blinky's photographic store, next door to No 66, said he was insulted by Mr
Herbert's comments.

"That's defamatory, highly defamatory," he said.

The Prime Minister also reiterated his disapproval of the injecting room
after yesterday's announcement.

"I don't agree with it now and I think as time goes by it will not be seen
as making a positive contribution," he said.

Residents said the matter was far from settled, and are considering NSW
Supreme Court action.

Final details of the operation are still to be worked out, but it is
expected there will be two nursing staff on duty, and that there will be a
minimum age limit of 18.

The site is near the third-most used taxi rank in the State, and the
fifth-most popular railway station, residents said.

Mara Dimond, from the Kings Cross Chamber of Commerce executive council,
said the site of the injecting room was the worst possible choice.

"That spot is the front door of Kings Cross," she said.

"We made one request - that the room not be put on Darlinghurst Rd. (Now)
... the injecting rooms and the drug dealers that we expect to hover around
outside will be the first thing tourists will see when they step on to the
street."

Despite pleas from local businesses for increased security, police said
additional officers will not patrol the strip.

The part-time medical director of the centre will be Dr Ingrid van Beek, of
the Kirketon Rd Clinic, and the general manager will be Karen Nairn, a
manager with the Central Coast Area Health Service.

Dr van Beek said the aim of the injecting room was to bring users into the
system, and make it easier for them to receive rehabilitation if they ask
for it.

"In our experience it has to be done in a subtle way.

"The skills of the health care worker are used to identify when the client
is despairing at their situation, and directing them to alternative venue
(for treatment)," she said.