INJECTING ROOM ORGANISERS WELCOME EXTENSION PLANS

The licence holder of the Kings Cross injecting room, Uniting Care, has
welcomed the New South Wales Government's plan to extend the trial for a
further 12 months.

The government wants the extension because the final report on the trial
will not be complete until April next year.

Uniting Care's executive director Reverend Harry Herbert said it would be
"illogical" to close the centre before the evaluation committee had made
its recommendations.

The centre's medical director Dr Ingrid van Beek says anecdotal evidence so
far suggests the centre is saving lives.

"Over 200 overdoses have been successfully managed on site with no
fatalities," she said.

"Were those overdoses to have occurred in unsupervised circumstances in a
back-street, certainly the outcome would have of course been more negative
than they have been and indeed may well have included fatalities," she said.