LOCALS FIGHT INJECTING ROOM TRIALS

AT the Collingwood Town Hall this week, a group of residents and traders
gathered in search of answers.

The people were members of a community battered by the scourge of drugs and
wanting solutions to a problem they face nearly every day in their streets,
laneways and shops.

But, as they told a panel of experts on safe-injecting facilities, they
fear the state Government's policy to trial a shooting gallery in the City
of Yarra could cause more problems than it solves.

"We have had more than our fair share of drug dealing and crime in and
around Collingwood and Fitzroy and we don't want our community singled out
as some sort of social laboratory," Fitzroy resident John Jennings told the
meeting.

Now, as Premier Steve Bracks faces increasing pressure from Prime Minister
John Howard to abandon safe-injecting room trials, it appears he may also
be facing a community backlash in Melbourne's heroin hot-spots.

Debates such as the one at Collingwood Town Hall are now raging in the
other four cities -- Port Phillip, Melbourne, Yarra and Maribyrnong --
earmarked for safe injecting facilities.

And community concern is only likely to build, said youth outreach service
Open Family chief executive Nathan Stirling.

He believes the state Government should be preparing to retreat from its
policy of only establishing safe injecting facilities with the support of
local governments.

"I would not be putting my money on all designated local government areas
approving these injecting facilities," he said. "Local governments are
extremely sensitive to resident and trader concerns ... and it may well be
that these local governments will not endorse them and then the state
Government is in a tricky position on what they do next.

"I think the state Government would have to have the right of veto but
hopefully they would have the right process so they could bring the local
community along with them."

Smith Street Traders Network secretary Myrto Aretakis points to a lack of
regard for the plight of traders trying to make a living for the growing
community alarm.

"How then will a safe-injecting facility, while taking the users out of
back lanes, minimise the harm to our potential customers and legal trade we
want to conduct in Smith Street?" she asked the Collingwood Town Hall meeting.

In Port Phillip, where the council has strongly supported a safe-injecting
facility for the area, disquiet is also brewing among retailers.

"We will take our fair share of the solution but there is a new level of
concern and that is that other groups will become more strident in their
opposition and we will be the only place," Fitzroy Street Traders
Association secretary Rosemary Tovey said.

Port Phillip Mayor Dick Gross, who has been appointed to the Government's
Drug Policy Expert Committee, headed by David Penington, has been a strong
advocate for injecting rooms.

However, he said the council would not accept St Kilda becoming the only
location for safe-injecting facilities.

"We don't want to have the honey pot effect and we want other communities
to come to the same realisation," he said.

"Clearly there is a responsibility of the local municipality to make sure
they are not isolated and alone."

In the CBD area, the issue has prompted a resurgence of the group Residents
3000 after three years of inaction. The proposal of Wesley Central Mission
to open a safe-injecting facility from its Lonsdale Street site has hit a
particularly sensitive nerve.

It is understood Wesley has spent $400,000 preparing its venue for a trial
safe-injecting facility and hoped to open next year. The project is now on
hold.

Residents 3000 secretary Peter Faris QC said inner-city people felt
excluded from the debate.

"Why is that we want to legitimise a heroin industry in the CBD?," he said.

"I cannot understand what our city fathers are on about."

The City of Melbourne last week deferred a decision until after the
Penington committee released its report next year.

The Greater Dandenong Council has also sensed a growing backlash,
particularly among traders. Mayor Naim Melhem concedes the majority of his
community is against the plan but he is hopeful the mood will change.

At Maribyrnong, the council is yet to determine its position. Mayor Bill
Horrocks said he was acutely aware residents and traders were struggling to
come to grips with a wide range of issues, from where a facility should be
located to how drug trafficking would be controlled.

"The interesting thing from our perspective is we are the only site on the
west side of the city, and that is of concern to us and something we need
to look at," he said.

Drug-Arm Victoria associate director Warwick Murphy said if a community
such as Yarra, which was once a mecca for drug users, was not united in
support of safe-injecting trials there was little hope the wider population
would support them.

"I think the more they try to push it and the community says it does not
want it, the community will rise up against it," he said.

"If the Labor Party thinks this is a fait accompli, I think they may be
misunderstanding and underestimating people."