KNOWINGLY ALLOWING PEOPLE TO DIE

As I read the headlines "PM acts on drug room" (Page 1, Herald, December
15) my heart sank and I almost wept.

I am a health worker who works in an emergency department in a Melbourne
hospital. I regularly assist in resuscitating drug addicts who are brought
in unconscious.

Several weeks ago I attended a lecture by the Victorian Ambulance Service
on "best practice" of resuscitating drug overdoses. I was horrified when
the ambulance officer told us that several years ago in Melbourne 300
people were resuscitated from heroin overdoses in three months. The figure
is now 1,500 in three months.

When I heard NSW was going to try out a safe-injecting room and Mr Bracks
in Victoria was endeavouring to do so, I thought Australia was finally
seeing the light.

I attended a course by Professor Timothy O'Farrell, from Harvard
University, on drug and alcohol dependence and he proved that by treating
addiction, communities could save economically when police, hospitals,
courts, prisons, insurance, security and crime were all evaluated.

Injecting rooms are a way of keeping people alive and off the street. To
allow people to die at a rate higher than car accident deaths and do
nothing to prevent it is surely negligent if not criminal. It is an offence
to drive away from an accident; surely to knowingly allow people to die
from drug overdosage is the same.