FIRST LEGAL HEROIN SHOOTING GALLERY

Australia's First Legal Heroin Shooting Gallery Would Be Trialled In
New South Wales Next Year, Premier Bob Carr Said Today.

Mr Carr said The Sisters of Charity and St Vincent's Hospital at
Darlinghurst-Kings Cross had reached agreement to operate the 18-month
trial next year.

Mr Carr also announced a statewide trial of a cannabis cautioning system
and a pilot compulsory treatment program for low-level drug users.

It will be trialled in the Illawarra region and on the far north coast.

But Mr Carr said his government had rejected decriminalisation of cannabis
and legalising the act of injecting a prohibited drug.

The package is a response to the Drug Summit held at NSW Parliament House
in May.

The medically-supervised heroin injecting room was the most controversial
recommendation from the summit.

Mr Carr said the St Vincents' injecting room would be the only shooting
gallery allowed in the state.

It would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said.

"The point about this is to get heroin use off the streets, out of the
laneways, prevent the continuing degradation of the environment of Kings
Cross and to get people into an environment where treatment is part of it
... and yes, on the way through we might save a few lives," he said.