MAYORS CALL FOR INJECTING ROOMS

Three Melbourne mayors have called on the State Government to allow a trial
of safe injecting rooms.

Earlier this week, the state Labor Party announced a drugs strategy that
would include five safe injecting centres in Melbourne if it won government.

The Mayor of Port Phillip, Cr Dick Gross, and the Mayor of Yarra, Cr Steve
Watson, said more people had died from heroin-related deaths in their areas
than anywhere else in Melbourne.

The Mayor of Greater Dandenong, Cr Naim Melhem, also joined the call for
safe injecting centres.

Cr Watson said the City of Yarra endorsed a report calling for a government
trial of safe injecting houses on Tuesday night.

The three mayors have called for more than one safe injecting centre to be
opened.

``The safe houses should be established simultaneously in several areas,''
Cr Watson said.

The City of Yarra, which covers Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond, had the
highest number of heroin-related deaths last year, 22.

Cr Gross said the City of Port Phillip had been investigating the support
it could give to agencies prepared to establish medically supervised safe
houses in the municipality. Thirteen people died from heroin overdoses in
the City of Port Phillip last year and 156 people overdosed.

A network of safe injecting houses was needed to minimise harm associated
with drug use in one area, Cr Watson said.

All three mayors agreed safe that injecting rooms would not end the drug
problem but, if introduced with other strategies, they could save lives.