DRUG ROOMS COULD BE UP IN JULY

A trial of supervised injecting rooms for heroin users could be operating
in Melbourne by the end of July, the chairman of the Victorian Government's
Drug Policy Expert Committee, Dr David Penington, said yesterday.

Dr Penington, whose advisory committee is due to report to the Government
by the end of March, said obstacles to implementing the rooms were being
reduced as the heroin death toll and associated problems worsened.

There was no legal hurdle which could not be overcome, he said, but the
Drug Poisons and Controlled Substances Act would require amendment if
addicts who used or possessed heroin in an injecting facility were to be
immune from prosecution.

The other option is to seek an agreement between the Government, police and
the Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute addicts who use or
possess heroin in an approved injecting room.

Dr Penington yesterday launched an issues paper on heroin for community
discussion.

He said a fact-finding visit to some of the 42 established injecting rooms
in Europe had revealed there was no evidence of the so-called "honey pot"
effect which had concerned some local councils because the facilities were
set up in areas where the heroin problem was already entrenched.

The Bracks Government has announced its intention to trial up to five
injecting facilities in Melbourne, Fitzroy, St Kilda, Footscray and
Springvale.

Dr Penington said he hoped they would be operating by the middle of the year.

Dr Penington said the injecting rooms would not be in residential areas and
could have a waiting area with coffee facilities, subsidised food and
counselling services.

"Australia is being flooded by heroin," Dr Penington said.

He said he had warned the previous Government that the number of young
teenage heroin users would grow, and there were now 13, 14, and
15-year-olds taking up the drug.

The Health Minister and acting Premier, Mr John Thwaites, said it was
crucial that safe injecting rooms have bipartisan political support.

The issues paper released yesterday notes that heroin now costs about $280
a gram compared to $600 a gram in early 1997, but its purity has risen from
about 30 per cent to just under 70 per cent.

"A `hit' is now not only relatively cheap, but also easy to buy," the paper
said. It estimated that by 2005, the number of heroin-related deaths each
year in Australia will have risen to almost 500.

The executive officer of Victoria's Youth Substance Abuse Service, Mr Paul
McDonald, said injecting rooms might not be adequate for heroin-addicted
teenagers.

"The real challenge is in providing services which build a path out for an
age group that's caught up in substance dependence," he said.