WAYSIDE CHAPEL CLOSES INJECTION ROOM

SYDNEY: An illegal heroin-injection room in Sydney's Kings Cross shut
yesterday but organisers said churches were planning to set up similar
facilities around Australia.

Drugs campaigner Tony Trimingham said the Wayside Chapel temporarily closed
its Tolerance Room, or T-room, to calm debate at next week's NSW drug
summit.

Mr Trimingham acknowledged that a police raid on Wednesday, in which one man
was arrested, had shown the church could not protect addicts using the
T-room from criminal charges.

The chapel's Reverend Ray Richmond warned the room would immediately reopen
and supporters would consider mass demonstrations if the summit was "weak or
equivocal" on the issue of safe heroin-injecting rooms.

"If we called for extra people to be involved we could swamp this street and
this T-room with thousands of people," he said.

Mr Trimingham said T-rooms could soon be operating on the NSW central coast
and in Melbourne and Brisbane after inquiries from Uniting Church
congregations.

"We've also received at least four indications from other places that
churches will be opening their doors to such facilities," he said.

Former NSW MP Ann Symonds said the T-room had started an unstoppable
momentum for safe-injecting rooms.

"What has happened as result of our action is an unstoppable process whereby
if the Government does not take control of the situation and manage the use
of illegal substances, then the community will," Ms Symonds said.

In Melbourne, Mayor Dick Gross, of Port Phillip Council, which covers St
Kilda, said a motion would be put to his council in two weeks on the issue.

Mr Gross said his view was that governments were already aiding and abetting
heroin addicts by making free needles available.

"All we are trying to do is minimise the harm done by drugs," he said.

In Wednesday's Sydney raid, one man was arrested and charged with possessing
a prohibited drug, and being the subject of three outstanding first-instance
warrants.

Two others were issued with court-attendance notices over the
self-administration of a prohibited drug.

The T-room began operating last week.

Mr Trimingham was concerned after learning of the action taken by police
against T-room "guests" on Wednesday afternoon.

"My worry is that we would get anyone involved in court action," he said.
"But I suppose people using the room will know what they are getting
themselves into from now on."

Notwithstanding fears of prosecution, Mr Trimingham said it was still
possible the gallery would open for business today, albeit with a roster of
new staff.

"At least that way it will make just a little more work for the police when
they arrive," he said.

Earlier, he had been clearly upset about the raid, slamming the operation as
"total overkill".

"For them to walk in and not allow anyone to read the warrant, I just think
is a total waste of taxpayers' money," he told reporters at the scene.

"It was certainly intimidating and there was, I think, an element of
rudeness involved."

Mr Trimingham also alleged a health-care worker was shoved as the officers
walked into the chapel and that requests by security staff that they wait
until Reverend Richmond came downstairs before proceeding were ignored.

According to Reverend Richmond, as many as 15 police took part in the raid,
something that had been an emotional experience.

"This is not normal stuff for me and certainly for nearly all of us. It was
a shake-up," he said.

At the same time, he said support for tolerance rooms was building in other
states, with rumours of other things happening or plans for them to happen.

"I don't think this is stoppable and it might just catalyse a new decision
about where to put the resources in this war against drugs," he said.

But last night two Queensland church bodies denied having any plans to set
up illegal heroin shooting galleries, or T-rooms, in the state.

Moderator of the Uniting Church in Queensland Reverend Donald Pitman said he
had no knowledge of any plans for a T-room in Queensland.

"I don't know where that has come from, whether its a rumour or wishful
thinking," he said. Sydney's Wayside Chapel was a unique institution and
there were no Uniting Church congregations in Queensland that had such close
contact with drug addicts.