MAYOR WANTS HEROIN TRIAL

Long-term drug addicts could be supplied with heroin in a trial by the City
of Melbourne to curb the growing drug trade in the central business district.

The Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Cr Ivan Deveson, has also revealed the city is
close to a decision on introducing safe injecting rooms for heroin users.

Cr Deveson said he would welcome the establishment of a heroin trial in
Melbourne as a way of reducing the growing number of deaths from heroin
overdose. He said the trial should be similar to the one proposed for the
ACT last year, before it was stopped by the Federal Government.

"Let's get on with it," Cr Deveson told The Sunday Age.

"If we're going to have what we've got now - the potential of overdose
death surpassing road deaths in the 18-25 demographic - let's look at how
many of these kids can be saved."

Cr Deveson said a decision on safe injecting rooms, which have been
trialled successfully in several European countries, would be made in the
next eight weeks.

He has also called for:

The establishment of a new tier of the judiciary, based on New York's "drug
courts". He said he had already raised the proposal with the
Attorney-General, Mrs Jan Wade.

The introduction of a "three strikes" state law that could force the
closure of a business if drug trafficking repeatedly took place on its
premises.

The Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, to take a greater role in the fight against
drugs and for the State Government to allocate greater resources for a
public awareness program about the drug problem.

And an extension of the Broadmeadows marijuana trial - which has involved
police issuing only cautions to people caught with small amounts of
cannabis - to the CBD.

Cr Deveson said the council was being urged to introduce the safe injecting
rooms by the head of the Premier's Drug Advisory Council, Professor David
Penington.

"I would like to have a good debate about it over the next eight weeks
because it's now either/or," Cr Deveson said.

"We're either going to surpass the road death (with heroin overdoses) or
we'll trial a safe injecting room."

The legality of safe injecting rooms remains clouded.

The City of Greater Dandenong last year considered establishing safe
injecting rooms, but temporarily shelved plans after advice suggested such
rooms could contravene the Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Act
(1991), which outlaws self-administration of drugs.

Supporters of the move, however, claim injecting rooms could be established
in the same manner that syringe and needle exchange programs operate.

Dr Kate Dolan, of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said
Victoria had an opportunity to trial safe injecting rooms.

She said a program in Frankfurt had dramatically curbed deaths by overdose
and there was no evidence that such rooms encouraged drug use.

The mayor of Dandenong, Cr Roz Blades, said her council would continue to
examine every option in the fight against drugs. "Injecting rooms are
better for their (users) health and for the rest of the community," she said.

"What we are after are medically supervised, clean injecting rooms. You
have got people taking drugs, and it is better for all people if they take
it in a safe environment."

Cr Deveson said: "I feel like there's a terrible danger if anybody puts
their foot in this water; they will be seen as too soft . . . because the
community is so conservative.

"(It's) led by our PM, a friend of mine. Two years ago I was just as
conservative. But I would have to acknowledge I have shifted in this
journey. And I despair at the number of my generation who haven't come on
that journey and who now will not understand when I tell them about the
problem."

A trial similar to the ACT heroin proposal was conducted in Switzerland six
years ago.

More than 1100 "impoverished" patients were given medically prescribed
heroin over three years. The results showed a marked improvement in the
health, lifestyle and employment possibilities of many involved.

"I'd like to see the Premier more involved," Cr Deveson said. "If he gets
involved, resources are really committed. I have no criticism of what the
state is doing, other than the scale is not right."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski