SAFE ROOM FOR 200 ADDICTS A DAY

Up to 200 people a day could be expected to use the safe injecting room that
ACT Health Minister Michael Moore hopes to set up in Civic.

Mr Moore outlined his plans yesterday for an injecting room that would
operate on a trial basis, probably from March.

It will not supply heroin to addicts, but will provide clean needles, a
place for users to inject, medical staff, and counselling and support.

Mr Moore tabled related legislation yesterday, but the Assembly will not be
asked to vote until February. He has the support of three of the six
Liberals, and will need the votes of the Labor Party to get it through.
Labor Leader Jon Stanhope has given guarded support.

Independent Paul Osborne is strongly opposed, and United Canberra Member
Trevor Kaine told Government Members yesterday they would be "mad" to
support Mr Moore.

The concept of a safe injecting room was a contradiction in terms, giving
respectability to an illegal activity.

"This is an outrageous proposition to put forward to a legislature. We would
have to be a bunch of morons to even consider it," he said.

Mr Moore said the room would be aimed at people who now injected in public
places. There were about 200 people a day in that category, almost half of
them under 25.

Details such as a site, staff levels and hours of operation were yet to be
worked out.

Heroin possession and self-administration would remain illegal, but the
Director of Public Prosecutions would be directed not to prosecute people
for those offences in the injecting room.

The legislation tabled yesterday was designed to deal with the civil
liability of staff and the territory, protecting them against legal action.

Mr Moore said the trial would not be simple to achieve, and he was "by no
means certain" that the Commonwealth would not try to stop it. "Safe
injecting places have problems, of course they do, the same as needle
exchange places have problems," he said. "But when we're talking about
saving lives, when we're talking about stopping the spread of disease, we
have to be pragmatic in our approach. It's about saving our children."

In Frankfurt such facilities had operated for almost 10 years and had seen
dramatic falls in rates of disease, overdose and crime.

Chief Minister Kate Carnell, Deputy Gary Humphries and Urban Services
Minister Brendan Smyth support the trial.

Mr Smyth said of the 14 drug deaths so far this year in the ACT, five were
in public places.

While he hated the thought of people injecting heroin, the injecting rooms
were aimed at saving lives.

Checked-by: Don Beck