DANK, DIRTY - BUT SAFE

Basically it is just a dank, windowless room - maybe a dirty old mattress
on the floor and a chair in the corner - but for the junkies of Kings Cross
these tiny rooms are a sanctuary.

The shooting galleries are a side-line associated with some of the strip
joints and brothels along Darlinghurst Road and since the big switch in the
Cross from heroin to cocaine they have proved profitable, as coke addicts
shoot up maybe 15 times a day. An average heroin junkie may manage three
shots.

For between $5 and $10 the users are provided with the room for 10 minutes
to shoot up, time to enjoy the initial rush and a chance to tidy themselves
before returning to whatever world they inhabit outside. Clean needles are
there for a small price.

Drug workers say the shooting galleries have been operating in the Cross
for "at least eight years" with the knowledge of police, who, at the
encouragement of health workers, felt it was better to have the injecting
done off the street.