GERMANS BACK ADDICT INJECTION ROOMS

BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's lower house of parliament legalized ``injection
rooms'' for drug addicts Thursday against the opposition of conservatives
who argued that users need treatment instead.

If approved by the upper house Friday, the measure passed by the governing
center-left coalition would reverse a German drug control policy that has
stood for years.

Authorities have tolerated 13 so-called ``shooting galleries'' in major
German cities for some time, but the rooms -- where heroin addicts can pick
up clean needles and inject themselves with the narcotic -- technically are
illegal.

The rooms are seen by supporters as a way to get drug users off the street
and reduce transmission of diseases like AIDS that can be spread by shared
needles.

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

Germany approved the change despite criticism of the concept by U.N.
experts in a report this week. The International Narcotics Control Board
said governments risked violating international drug control treaties by
allowing shooting galleries.