GOVT TOUGH ON DRUG ROOMS

No Heroin Galleries

The NSW Government rejected calls yesterday from its own ranks to set
up heroin shooting galleries as pressure mounted over how to deal with
teenage hard drug abuse.

Welfare authorities and police now say a boy pictured on the front
page of the Sun-Herald newspaper shooting up in Caroline Lane,
Redfern, was 16 years old, not 12 or 13 as first thought.

The boy's mother complained she was powerless to get him into
rehabilitation and claimed heroin was "such an easy drug to get".

"They just seem to be able to get on it so easy," she told Channel
Nine. "I'm worried about he's going to kill himself. He's overdosed
once."

Police said they would not press charges, but would counsel the
boy.

NSW Health Minister Andrew Refshauge stressed the Government would not
scrap the needle exchange program because it was highly successful in
preventing the spread of HIV.

Dr Refshauge rejected Opposition calls for an independent review of
the program but said an internal review would be ready after the March
27 state election.

He ruled out the introduction of injecting rooms, known as shooting
galleries, a measure advocated by Vic Smith, a councillor and ALP
candidate for the inner city electorate of Bligh, which covers
Caroline Lane.

"We need to provide a safe environment with health professionals to
look after the needs of addicts and in turn make the streets safer for
the community," Councillor Smith said.

"We need help and commitment on a national basis - and that means
looking at education, heroin trials and safe injecting rooms - if
we're to beat it."

The proposal to trial injecting rooms for heroin users, recommended by
the 1997 Royal Commission into police to reduce the number of overdose
deaths, was rejected by a committee of NSW MPs last year.

But Dr Refshauge would not rule out limiting access to clean needles,
according to age.

"What I'm asking for is a review to see the best response in regard to
children," Dr Refshauge said, a measure advocated by the Opposition.

"I think we have had a very good program that's prevented the spread
of HIV and AIDS."

"We also have additional responsibilities for children, and I think we
need to work out how best to bring those together.