INJECTING ROOM PLAN SLATED

Independent MLA Paul Osborne has criticised Health Minister Michael Moore's
plans for Australia's first "safe injecting room", saying yesterday that a
harm-minimisation strategy actually contributed to more drug problems.

The Australian Federal Police Association also attacked Mr Moore's plan,
saying it would result in police being unable to enforce heroin laws in the
ACT.

In a statement yesterday Mr Osborne said that, contrary to Mr Moore's view,
experiences in Switzerland's "shooting galleries" had served to spread the
use of illicit drugs. "There is no compelling evidence to support the
notion that establishing shooting galleries is a sensible policy decision,"
he said.

"Switzerland is the pet jurisdiction of those pushing the
'harm-minimisation' barrow, yet there is evidence to suggest that the
liberal policies of this country have served to spread the use of illicit
drugs."

Switzerland had the highest rate of hard-drugs use in Europe (30,000 users
in a population of only seven million) and a recent government survey had
shown a sharp rise in cannabis consumption between 1992 and 1998.

Mr Moore plans to establish a safe injecting room - at a yet-unidentified
site in Civic - which will allow heroin addicts to take drugs in the
presence of a nurse and other support.

Mr Osborne said dealers in Switzerland had congregated around shooting
galleries selling drugs to users.

He believed there was no safe level of illicit-drug use, and the bulk of
the drugs used in the centre would have been bought with the proceeds of
crime.

"I believe that we run less risk of endangering the broader community by
erring on the side of prohibition," he said.

The ACT secretary of the police association, Jason Byrnes, said that, under
Mr Moore's plan, "if police catch an offender with heroin, then in order to
escape legal action the offender may just have to claim that they were on
their way to the shooting gallery, and police will be powerless to take any
further action". Independent MLA Dave Rugendyke, a former police officer,
said he was concerned about the impact on children with drug problems. "I
think the minister is wrong setting up injecting clinics before a cent is
spent on the rehabilitation and treatment of child addicts," he said. There
were no services in Canberra for young people with drug and alcohol problems.

Mr Osborne said the ACT needed to implement an education program
highlighting the harmful nature of drugs, combined with a strong
law-enforcement approach.

Mr Moore said it was "a shame that some people insist on taking a shallow
approach. If they could just open their minds a while they would realise
there are ways of reducing some of the problems associated with drug use".

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski