INDEPENDENT BAULKS AT SAFE HEROIN TRIAL

The Government's proposal for five safe injecting facilities is in jeopardy
after the independent member for Mildura, Mr Russell Savage, yesterday
joined the Opposition in expressing reservations about the proposal.

Mr Savage said there was no safe situation in which to inject heroin and it
was appropriate to consider safe injecting houses only if all serious
disadvantages had been resolved.

He said Dr David Penington, who is leading the Government's advisory
committee, would be required to resolve those issues and produce an
acceptable working arrangement.

While Mr Savage would give a trial "the benefit of the doubt", he told
Parliament the concept could not be endorsed without community and local
government support.

The Opposition Leader, Dr Denis Napthine, called the facilities "shooting
galleries" and said many questions needed to be answered before bipartisan
support could be given to the Government's "simplistic solution".

"Let me make it very, very clear: these are not safe injecting facilities,"
he said. "That is an absolute and utter misnomer. There is no way ... the
Government can pretend that injecting illegal and lethal substances into
any person in any environment is safe." Dr Napthine said Dr Penington's
committee needed to determine:

Age limits for users.

How to distinguish between a first-time user and a drug addict.

How to check the quality of heroin.

The liabilities of the Government and the facilities' workers if a drug
addict died.

He also questioned whether Dr Penington had the authority to advise the
Government against the proposal or if his role was to just to oversee its
implementation.

The Opposition's health spokesman, Mr Robert Doyle, said other issues
included the location of facilities, the role of councils in planning, the
determinants of success or failure, the numbers of health professionals
available, and the conflicts with state laws regarding the aiding and
abetting of drug use.

"You don't put up some two-line policy, barely and scantily costed, and
then say, regardless of the fact that there are serious questions, `Oh,
we'll address those at some point down the track'," Mr Doyle said.

The Premier, Mr Steve Bracks, denied the proposal was underfunded and said
the Government had set aside $20million for its drug policy.

The Health Minister, Mr John Thwaites, said safe injecting centres were
part of the Government's comprehensive four-plank drug strategy that aimed
to save lives.

He said centres established overseas had led to a massive fall in drug
deaths and addicts, including Switzerland, where the number of deaths had
dropped from 419 in 1992 to 209 last year, and Frankfurt, where deaths fell
from 147 in 1991 to 31 last year.

But he said a trial was still needed and the results evaluated before the
facilities were implemented.

"We agree there are serious questions. But that's why we put Dr Penington
in place," Mr Thwaites said. "That's why we have a committee to examine
those issues and to come up with expert recommendations on them."

He said Dr Penington was "not someone who can be told by us to do anything".