COUNCIL PLANS LEGAL HEROIN INJECTING ROOMS

South Sydney Council hopes to take the lead in approving legal, safe
injecting rooms within its boundaries in response to rising complaints
about backstreet overdoses, drug users shooting up and syringes
littering streets.

Already, two needle exchange centres in the municipality issue about
1.2 million syringes a year but the council estimates it collects only
25,000 of those from needle bins.

At last night's council meeting, the mayor, Councillor Vic Smith, said
safe injecting rooms would be permitted if a report by its officers
determined it was legally possible. He would try to set up the rooms
with the co-operation of police and health workers. But to avoid a
"bottleneck" of drug users in South Sydney, Cr Smith would ask other
councils with similar problems to investigate having such rooms in
their areas.

Safe injecting rooms were high on the political agenda last year when
a NSW joint parliamentary committee, acting on a recommendation from
the Wood Royal Commission, was investigating whether to have a trial.

Justice Wood said safe injecting rooms might reduce police corruption,
endemic when illegal shooting galleries operated in Kings Cross, and a
public health benefit might result for drug users and the community.

When the committee was established, the Premier, Mr Carr, said the
Government would approve a trial only if both sides of politics
supported it. The Opposition Leader, Mr Collins, did not, and in
February the committee voted six to four against it.

The director of the Wayside Chapel at Kings Cross, the Rev Raymond
Richmond, said that while a lack of political will squashed approval
for a trial, such progressive health initiatives had widespread local
support. "I have advocated for a better health focus on heroin
addiction rather than a legalistic approach to putting people in jail,
and I would certainly support local government attempts to establish
these," he said.

The mayoral minute circulated before last night's council meeting said
legal safe injecting rooms were favoured by the community as long they
were not near parks, playgrounds or homes.

The director of Darlinghurst's Kirketon Road Centre, Dr Ingrid van
Beek, agreed with the mayor: "In a telephone survey undertaken in
Kings Cross last year, 68 per cent of people surveyed agreed the
establishment of safe injecting rooms is in the interest of the local
community."

Having a regulated site for drug users had many benefits, she said,
including providing a point where drug counsellors and health workers
could offer help to users, providing a safer environment for ambulance
drivers than alleys when dealing with overdoses, and removing syringes
from streets.

Commercial premises were already being used by hard-drug users,
without those benefits.

The Kirketon Road Centre was working with police and health agencies,
examining how to establish such sites, Ms van Beek said, and the
response had so far been favourable.

She said police had discretionary powers to choose whether to arrest
drug users and were far more interested in traffickers.

"There are benefits for both drug users and local communities," she
said.

"The benefits accrue to the drug users in terms of their personal
health and social welfare by overdose prevention and HIV prevention;
and in terms of the community, it improves the local amenity, such as
removing discarded syringes from the streets, and increases public
order, and there is a greater sense of safety and security on the street."

Checked-by: (trikydik)