NEEDLES NEXT TO SCHOOL

A STATE Government-funded needle exchange is operating metres from a
child care centre and primary school in Sydney's west, despite the
opposition of parents and the local council.

Syringes are being handed out to drug users from an office in the
Bonnyrigg youth centre building.

Two youths who visited the centre to pick up syringes yesterday then
went into the nearby grounds of the Bonnyrigg Primary School where one
injected heroin.

The heroin user, Paul, 15, said addicts sometimes shot up in the
school, "depending on how desperate they are".

The service run by the Fairfield-Liverpool Youth Health Team has
continued to operate despite a campaign from parents of children at
the adjacent child care centre.

Fairfield City Council has been unsuccessfully calling since July for
the needle exchange program to suspend operations and submit a
development application.

Fairfield Councillor Ken Chapman said last night: "How can you have a
service running from a youth centre in an area that has a school, a
shopping centre and a child care centre?"

A South-western Sydney Area Health Service spokeswoman said there were
"continuing discussions" over the location of the service.

The controversy comes days after the Government suspended the
operation of a mobile needle exchange unit in Redfern and ordered a
review of the $9 million program.

The State's private and public needle exchange program has grown by 50
per cent in three years.

The expansion saw the number of needles and syringes handed out in NSW
rise to 9.2 million in 1997-98.

A 50 per cent expansion by 2000 was recommended in an unreleased
review completed in 1997 in a bid to counter the spread of hepatitis
C.

Carried out by a team of experts led by the head of Drug and Alcohol
Services at St Vincent's Hospital, Dr Alex Wodak, the recommendations
were never formally accepted by Health Minister Andrew Refshauge.

But Dr Wodak said the recommended expansion of the program had been
achieved, and at the same time there was evidence that the rate of
hepatitis C infection was falling.

"We can't prove that is a direct result but it must have played some
role," Dr Wodak said yesterday.

"It is clear that the program has saved an enormous number of lives
and millions of dollars in public health care costs."

Meanwhile NSW political leaders yesterday promised to tone down
rhetoric about drugs in the lead-up to the state election - but shied
away from radical drug law reforms.

Premier Bob Carr said he favoured a bipartisan approach and complained
the Opposition taunted him about being soft on drugs.

But he refused to hold a meeting on the issue with Opposition Leader
Kerry Chikarovski, remarking "word processors are available, ideas can
be committed to paper".

"I'd like to see a bipartisan approach," Mr Carr said.

"You've seen me in Parliament talking about some of our initiatives and
you've heard catcalls from the Opposition: 'You're soft on drugs, you're
soft on drugs'.

"If we can end that kind of thing and just try to solve some of the
problems society has got you'll find me part of it."