COMMUNITY DIVIDED OVER SHOOTING GALLERIES

There were 953 heroin-related deaths in NSW between 1992 and 1996. While
the State Government is seriously considering the idea of shooting
galleries, community opinion is divided.

To many, the establishment of heroin shooting galleries is a signal the NSW
Government is getting soft on drugs. Opponents claim that providing addicts
with the means to facilitate their addiction is just one way of
legitimising the use of heroin in our society.

To the proponents of the idea, however, shooting galleries will provide a
safe environment for drug users, help clean up the streets and, hopefully,
slow the tide of heroin addiction through associated education programs.

The establishment of ``medically supervised injecting rooms'' was one of
the resolutions adopted at the NSW Drug Summit held at Parliament House in
May.

A special Cabinet committee, including Police Minister Paul Whelan, Health
Minister Craig Knowles, Attorney-General Jeff Shaw, Corrective Services
Minister Bob Debus and Special Minister for State John Della Bosca, is due
to report back on the resolutions by the end of this month.

If adopted, the summit's 172 resolutions would give NSW Australia's most
liberal drug laws and include a trial of shooting galleries in drug hot
spots like Kings Cross, Redfern and Nimbin.

According to figures from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at
NSW University, heroin-related deaths are on the rise.

From 1992 to 1996, there were 953 heroin-related deaths in NSW, with 80 per
cent, or 765 deaths, occurring in Sydney.

Outside the Sydney metropolitan area, the most heroin-related deaths
occurred in the Illawarra, with 43 deaths, making up five per cent of the
total. In that period there were 17 deaths in the Southern Highlands and
nine along the South Coast.

DRUG summit delegate and Berkeley Crisis Centre manager Kristine French
said if heroin shooting gallery trials proved successful she would welcome
such facilities in the Illawarra.

Since beating a heroin addiction 16 years ago, Ms French has worked to help
others battling the addiction.

She returned to the Berkeley detox and rehabilitation centre about two
years ago, after a break of several years, and immediately noticed the
increase in demand.

``The demand for our service at Berkeley has just gone through the roof,''
she said. ``At any one time there are over 20 people on the waiting list
and since last year the incidence of calls to the service has gone up by
100 per cent.''

Ms French believes a shooting gallery would be beneficial to the region,
provided it came with the consent of the community.

``Personally, I believe the proposed injecting rooms are a good idea, as
long as they are established within the guidelines set at the drug
summit,'' she said.

``Initially though we're talking about a small number of trials to be
established in areas like Kings Cross where the local community wants them.

``They would have to be non-government, and they would have to have
community support and be well supervised.''

Ms French said one of the benefits of the proposed shooting galleries was
that it would provide addicts with medical support and advice.

``They won't just be injecting rooms, they will be possible contact points
for people and the supervisors will be able to offer support and act as a
referral source to other health programs,'' she said.

``It will be one way for health workers to access people who are outside
the normal circle, because what these people are doing is illegal they are
less likely to contact people who can help them.

``There will also be people on hand in the event of an overdose so that
there will be immediate medical attention.''

MS French said it would be inhumane to ignore the problem.

``I believe every human has the right to care, I don't believe we can
morally make judgments because we feel these people are doing it to
themselves,'' she said.

``We have to realise that drugs aren't the problem, they are the end result
and unless we deal with the problems that are there in the first place we
are not going to get anywhere.

``In the meantime, however, any intervention to keep drug addicts alive has
to be a viable thing, regardless of how people feel.''

The rehabilitation of drug addicts would be beneficial not just to the
individual but to the entire community, Ms French said.

``Addicts aren't just addicts, they are fathers, mothers, children,
sisters, friends and they may go on to lead productive lives,'' she said.

``I have - I've been abstinent for 16 years now and have a family and
believe I am very productive within the community. If we don't give these
people a chance then we may lose their valuable contributions later on and
so the community may suffer in the long-term.''

Ms French believed that, regardless of the end result, the NSW Drug Summit
had been very successful.

``The blinkers are now off. No amount of money put into Customs or police
is going to stop the drug trade so we have to think of other solutions,''
she said.

``Regardless of the results of the summit, and a lot will depend on
finances, the fact that the people who make the decisions were educated
about these issues made the summit worth it.

``We have to be realistic, we can't fix the problem overnight, but if the
key players are better informed then that has to be a good result.''

PRIME Minister John Howard's key adviser on drugs, the Salvation Army's
Major Brian Watters, takes a harder line on drug issues and is the main
opponent of shooting galleries.

Maj Watters told The Illawarra Mercury that an abstinence-based approach
was the key to eradicating illicit drugs from society.

Any attempts to ``soften'' drug laws like the establishment of shooting
galleries, he said, would send the wrong message to society.

``By providing facilities for people's drug use, we are sending the message
that our society accepts and tolerates the use of illicit drugs,'' he said.
``We would be moving down a dangerous path, one that normalises the use of
drugs.''

Maj Watters said those most vulnerable in society, especially youth and the
marginalised, were most at risk from ``experiments'' with drug laws.

``In the attempt to save some lives, we may be costing many others,'' he said.

``If our concern is about people's drug use and the negative health
implications then we should be helping them not to use drugs, not enabling
them to continue to use them.''

The proposal to establish shooting galleries was not a practical solution,
he said.

``You can't provide a facility with known services unless you provide known
substances, and I can't condone that,'' he said.

``It is not safe for people to go to these injecting rooms and use a clean
needle in a clinical environment if they are shooting up substances of an
unknown source and questionable purity.''

MAJ Watters was also worried about the legal implications.

If these shooting galleries were police-free zones, he said, they could
become a contact point for addicts and for pushers, to the detriment of the
surrounding neighbourhood.

``How can we ask the police to turn their backs on an illegal act, to turn
their back on dealers?'' he said.

``Yet if there was police surveillance, users would avoid the galleries for
fear of identification or arrest.''

Maj Watters also questioned whether the addicts themselves would actually
use the facilities.

He referred to an incident in Adelaide last week where a two-month-old baby
suffocated after her heroin-addicted mother overdosed and collapsed on top
of her in a toilet block.

``Why don't people wait to get home before injecting?'' he said.

``It's because they have an obsession which overwhelms every other rational
thought and they need instant gratification.

``A heroin user won't walk around the block, let alone across town to an
injecting room to inject themselves - they want an immediate fix.''

He also argued that addicts were not simply addicted to a substance, but to
the lifestyle.

``There's a whole drug culture which has a ritual element and for the user
it is the excitement of the forbidden, of the illegal,'' he said.

``Those within this culture will not go to a clinical, clean shooting room
as it just doesn't fit into that lifestyle.

``Low-level drug addicts won't go either as they don't want anyone to know
they are addicts.

``They will use at home, which is where three-quarters of the overdoses
occur.''

Maj Watters said while he agreed with the need for harm minimisation, what
was more important was harm prevention.

``While certain agencies may think it's very kind and compassionate to
provide places to minimise harm, this is not a kindness,'' he said.

``We need to spend more money on the provision of treatment facilities and
detox facilities to get them clean.

``Drug-free treatment programs appear to be more successful in achieving
abstinence than legal supply programs.

``Education in schools and community awareness campaigns are also essential
to prevention as are stricter enforcement of existing laws.

``We need to stir up the national will and send a clear message that we
will not tolerate this, we will not accept the use of drugs in our society.''

THE issue of shooting galleries has also divided the politicians.

NSW Premier Bob Carr refused to accept shooting galleries when the Wood
Royal Commission into police corruption suggested their establishment two
years ago.

His younger brother Gregory died of a heroin overdose in the early 1980s,
aged 28, after lying in a hospice for almost a year.

However, Mr Carr did an about-face on the issue when he told the NSW Drug
Summit 1999 he wanted the Government to examine a plan for legal injecting
rooms to be established by non-government organisations.

``This is a matter that's got to be faced up to,'' Mr Carr told the summit.

When The Illawarra Mercury contacted Mr Carr's office this week, the
Premier was busy examining the recommendations of the summit, including the
proposed injecting rooms.

``While I will not accept the normalisation of heroin in our society,
practical approaches need to be looked at,'' a statement from his office said.

``I am currently examining the recommendations of the drug summit and will
be outlining an action plan in the coming weeks.''

NSW Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski, however, voted against the
resolution.

``I am still not persuaded that injecting rooms are in fact an appropriate
response to what we are doing with drugs,'' she said.