HEROIN SHOOTING GALLERY A GOER

The state's first legal heroin shooting gallery will open in Sydney's Kings
Cross next year to try to get addicts off the streets and prevent overdose
deaths.

The scheme is part of a radical revamp of the state's drug laws, which also
includes a cannabis cautioning system and regional trials, unveiled in the
Illawarra yesterday, of a compulsory treatment program for small-time users
of heroin, speed, LSD and ecstasy.

Most other state leaders greeted the announcement with scepticism, saying
they did not believe a safe injecting room trial was the answer to the
nation's drug problem.

However the ACT predicted it would have its own safe injecting room set up
by the end of the year.

NSW Premier Bob Carr denied going soft on drugs, saying he had to look at
new ways of getting drug users into treatment.

He said his government had rejected proposals to both completely
decriminalise cannabis and to scrap the offence of self-administration of a
prohibited drug.

Catholic order the Sisters of Charity and St Vincent's Hospital will trial
a medically supervised injecting room for 18 months in Kings Cross, one of
the city's heroin markets.

"The point about this is to get heroin use off the streets, out of the
laneways (and to) prevent the continuing degradation of the environment of
Kings Cross," Mr Carr said.

"To get people into an environment where treatment is part of it ... and
yes, on the way through we might save a few lives."

St Vincent's Hospital alcohol and drug service head Alex Wodak said the
injecting room would have 50,000 visits a year and prevent up to 40
overdose deaths.

He said similar facilities in Europe had not experienced a single overdose
death, although Sisters of Charity chief executive Tina Clifton
acknowledged they were untested in Australia.

"Certainly uncharted waters, but the sort of work that we need to do there
is very familiar to us, (with) the expertise we'll provide we don't feel
that it's dangerous," she said.

The room will open seven hours a day, every day and its location will be
decided after consultation with the local community.

Other communities in drug hotspots such as Cabramatta have opposed
injecting rooms and the Kings Cross facility will be the only one allowed
in the state during the trial. Safe injecting rooms were the most
controversial recommendation of the recent NSW drug summit and were also
backed by the Wood Royal Commission in 1997.

Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski said the shooting gallery would send
the wrong message to young people.

"Today's decision is a great disappointment to me and all those parents who
had hoped the Premier would stand firm and reject any move to soften our
approach to illicit drugs," she said.

Morals campaigner, the Reverend Fred Nile, vowed to organise a picket when
the injecting room opened.

NSW Users and AIDS Association spokeswoman Annie Madden welcomed the plan
but said there should be at least three trials.

"They save lives ... that's the bottom line," she said.

Mr Carr also announced a 12-month state-wide trial where people caught with
less than 15g of cannabis could receive two cautions from police rather
than face prosecution.

In the Illawarra and the Far North Coast, a scheme would be trialled under
which small-time hard-drug users with no previous convictions for drugs,
violence or sexual assault would be cautioned if they agreed to treatment.

The government sent ministers throughout the state yesterday to promote the
drugs package.

Other initiatives include a youth drug court and $158 million extra for
rehabilitation and treatment, including an overhaul of the controversial
methadone program.