INJECTING ROOM MAY OPEN THIS YEAR: MOORE

The ACT Government will launch its long-awaited drug strategy today,
clearing the way for injecting-room legislation to be debated in the
Assembly in the October sitting.

Labor and the Greens' Kerrie Tucker have made their support for an
injecting room dependent on its being presented as part of a broad,
strategic approach to the drug problem.

Labor will put up a number of amendments to Mr Moore's Bill, to address
concerns about policing and other matters.

Mr Moore said yesterday that if the Bill passed this sitting, as he hoped
it would, an injecting room could be operating by the end of the year.

The three-year strategy, ' From Harm to Hope' , differs from previous plans
by looking at all areas of government, housing, law and order, education
and environment, as well as health.

The safe-injecting facility would be run as a scientific trial and would be
a supervised environment for injecting and disposing of equipment. It would
provide links to rehabilitation, detoxification and counselling services.

The Government had not given up hope of conducting a heroin trial and its '
feasibility' was still a matter for ' ongoing consideration' , despite
repeated setbacks this year, including Prime Minister John Howard's firm
opposition to the plan.

The Government's position on drug courts was formalised in the strategy.
The Treatment Referral Program, under which treatment was considered as a
sentencing option, had been run by the ACT Government for some time. An
extension of that program, which would involve in-court advice from health
professions, rather than written reports, was being looked at.

Other initiatives were: an expansion of counselling, treatment,
rehabilitation and family support services for those abusing drugs and
alcohol; establishment of a youth rehabilitation service; additional
training to recognise multiple drug problems; introduction of a privately
operated methadone clinic and an awareness campaign on the effects
medication had on driving skills, to be aimed at older people.

Attention would also be paid to living conditions, both domestic and
environmental, with the development of a healthy cities public health
program, and design changes to public housing to try to stop illicit drug
activity.

The Government admits in the report that while drug strategies to date have
succeeded in reducing harm to users, they have ' not been successful in
terms of reducing demand or supply' .

Additional resources might need to be devoted to dealing with such issues,
especially in relation to school-age children.