T-ROOM ORGANISERS VOW TO DEFY AUTHORITIES

Organisers of an illegal heroin shooting gallery now operating in
Sydney today vowed to defy authorities and reopen if they were raided
by police.

The Reverend Ray Richmond of the Wayside Chapel at Kings Cross said
the group had overwhelming support for their act of civil disobedience
and planned to open another shooting gallery, or T-room, in Melbourne.

"If we are closed down, we will open again," Richmond
said.

"If our frontline people are removed or intimidated, others will take
their place, if there is no response from the government, the service
will open again."

Health care professionals, religious leaders and a number of
politicians attended a packed press conference in the chapel today to
unveil the T-room, which has been in the planning for seven months.

Richmond said the injecting room was needed to save
lives.

"We do not like what we are doing, it is disturbing and sickening to
watch people inject," he said.

Independent MP for Bligh, Clover Moore, accused the major political
parties of ignoring the issue.

"It's all very well for people in ivory towers, the Bob Carrs, the
John Howards, to go and get their air-conditioned cars and turn their
back on the people who are dying in the back lanes of my electorate
and my residents who have to step over people ODing on their doorstep
... we have to deal with this on a daily basis," she said.

Aiding and abetting the self-administration of a prohibited drug
carries a maximum penalty of a $2200 fine or two years' jail, or both
in NSW.