INJECTION OF HYSTERIA

YOUR editorial on the Wayside Chapers safe injecting room (Daily Telegraph,
May 4) described Tony Trimingham - one of the room's founders as "misguided"
and "misinformed".

This is inaccurate, and you should be ashamed.

The Telegraph paints Mr Trimingham (and like-minded people who have lost
sons, daughters and siblings to heroin) as "sincere" but hysterical, as if
mentally "touched" by the madness of grief.

However, people like Mr Trimingham know much more about drugs and drug
policies than most people.

For us, the issues are very concrete. It's not about moral rights and
wrongs. It's not about messages.

For us it's much more simple - we ask, "Would this have helped my family
without harming others?"

We are not uninformed. We read medical reports. We read sociological
journals. We listen to criminologists. We examine the data. We know that
providing safe places to inject, with medical staff on hand, will (and does)
save lives.

HEATHER BROOK Ainsle, ACT