INJECTING CENTRE TO GET THUMBS UP

A final report on the controversial Kings Cross injecting centre is
expected to declare it a resounding success that has saved hundreds of lives.

The report, by an independent evaluation committee headed by Professor
Richard Mattick, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre,
will go to the Government in the next few weeks.

It has found that over 18 months the centre handled 424 drug overdoses -
337 of them from heroin - and referred 1385 drug users to rehabilitation or
welfare.

Special Minister of State John Della Bosca said there would be a full
debate once the report was released. "I don't want to give my personal
thoughts on how it has gone at this stage," he said.

The injecting room trial began two years ago amid a storm of protest.
Critics said it would act like a honey pot, attracting addicts and dealers
to Kings Cross, and send a message that it was OK to be an addict.

The Medically Supervised Injecting Centre's medical director, Dr Ingrid van
Beek, said she was "100 per cent confident" the centre had saved lives.

She said the 3818 clients who used it represented more than half the local
drug population.

Despite fears businesses would be damaged, Dr Van Beek said there had been
no quantifiable drop in local business since the centre opened.

Footpath counts showed general traffic to the Cross had increased.

An interim report on the first year of the trial found no increase in
drug-related crime or amenity problems.

But not everyone is convinced. Malcolm Duncan, president of the Kings Cross
Chamber of Commerce, said he was now more opposed to the centre than when
it opened.

He said Kings Cross traders had suffered a drop in business because of the
centre. "We have had this little social experiment thrust on us and it has
helped bugger the place up," he said.

But shopkeeper Daniel Andrews, who has a 24-hour convenience store two
doors from the centre, said he had reservations when it opened but he had
since changed his mind.

"For a long time I haven't found a used needle on the street," he said.

"Before it was open, especially if you worked here at night time, the
ambulance sirens just went on and on into the wee hours. That's virtually
stopped."

Sherianne, a Kings Cross sex worker, said she used to shoot up in public or
rent a room to inject.

Before the centre opened, ambulance officers had to give her an
anti-overdose drug three times in a week.

She was one of the first to register as a client when it opened.

Allan, 33, became a client of the centre after the fatal overdoses of two
mates in a week.

Both Sherianne and Allan have collapsed in or near the injecting centre,
and said its staff had saved their lives several times.

Parliament voted 60 to 28 last year to extend the trial until Professor
Mattick's final report was finished.