Pubdate: Mon, 10 Jan 2000
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 2000
Contact:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Author: Martin Chulov

INJECTING ROOM ON LOOKOUT FOR STAFF

THE Uniting Church will today begin advertising for staff to run the
nation's first heroin injection room, which the NSW Government insists will
open as planned despite the objections of the UN.

Up to 10 staff will be hired to work at the Kings Cross site to be situated
in the heart of Sydney's drug trade. It is set to open in April with the
Government confirming yesterday that the UN Narcotics Control Board would
be asked to voice its concerns during a visit to Sydney in March.

However, the visit would not lead to a further delay in opening the
injection room.

"We are going to continue as planned," a spokesman for Special Minister of
State John Della-Bosca said.

Representatives of the international panel, which can rule on the legality
of heroin trials, have warned that the rooms are illegal and could damage
the image of Sydney's Olympics.

A site is yet to be finalised after venues proposed by the Uniting Church
were rebuffed on legal and safety grounds by Police Commissioner Peter Ryan
and NSW Health director-general Mick Reid.

But in the precinct likely to host the room, the Kings Cross drugs trade
continues to flourish, with addicts injecting openly and their suppliers
brazenly dealing in heroin and cocaine.

Well-established haunts on the main strip, Darlinghurst Road, are still in
use.

A continual stream of dealers, witnessed by The Australian, file into a
hotel on Darlinghurst Road to swap takings for more low-grade cocaine,
before returning to sell to customers in the public square nearby.

NSW police sources say they are aware of the bustling trade at the hotel
but are focusing their efforts on suppliers of large quantities.

Police two weeks ago charged a syndicate with supplying more than a kilo of
heroin from premises across the road from the hotel. The charges followed
four months of surveillance and recorded conversations.

"We are seeing a lot of cocaine at the moment, but a lot of it is only
around 20 per cent pure," a police source said.

"When it leaves the suppliers at Bankstown, it's around 80 per cent but
that sort of quality on the street would kill the average junkie."

Reverend Ray Richmond from the Wayside Chapel, which will administer the
injection trial, said: "My impression is that it hasn't slowed down for
some of the drugs of choice. It has switched back from cocaine to heroin
and I would think that there has been a gradual increase.

"There are certainly more people using our facilities. There are more (drug
related) calls to the crisis centre."

Crime-fighting sources believe the arrest of the men involved in the
syndicate may lead to the end of a co-operative agreement that divides the
area between three separate groups. They fear that one group, based in
Bankstown, may attempt to monopolise control of the Cross and its spoils.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart