AUSTRALIANS PLAN CHURCH HEROIN INJECTING ROOM

SYDNEY - Australian church leaders and health experts plan to open an
illegal heroin injecting room in a Sydney church where "church sanctuary''
can be invoked against prosecution, a drugs campaigner said Monday. The
experimental center, dubbed a "Tolerance Room'' or the ''T-Room,'' is in
defiance of Prime Minister John Howard's ''zero tolerance'' drug policy. The
room is designed to offer addicts a safe environment to inject heroin using
clean equipment and under medical supervision. "The whole point about this
is to save people's lives,'' said activist Tony Trimmingham, whose son died
of a heroin overdose.

There are no legal heroin "shooting galleries'' in Australia. Many are
believed to operate clandestinely but are linked to the drug trade. The
"T-Room'' center would be opened for four weeks in an unidentified church to
enable supporters to claim church sanctuary and supposedly avoid arrest or
prosecution, said Trimmingham.

He described the plan as an act of civil disobedience. The Sydney injecting
room would be opened to coincide with a New South Wales state drugs summit
in two weeks but Trimmingham refused to detail exactly where and when it
would open.

Under state law, aiding the self-administration of an illegal drug carries a
penalty of two years jail, a A$2,200 (US$1,452) fine, or both. New South
Wales Attorney-General Jeff Shaw told reporters he could not comment on
whether the group would be prosecuted.

But Howard rejected the heroin "shooting gallery,'' saying it was an easy
attempt to gain publicity for the plight of drug addicts rather than
offering any real solutions.

Australia's toll from heroin overdoses has soared from 70 in 1979 to 600 in
1997, according to the latest figures available from the National Drug and
Alcohol Research Center.

Switzerland made heroin available under medical supervision in 1995.