Pubdate: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 Source: Herald Sun (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ Author: Tim Jamieson And Michael Harvey WE DON'T WANT DRUG ROOMS VICTORIANS are overwhelmingly against the idea of heroin injecting rooms in their suburbs. More than 7150 callers contacted the Herald Sun Voteline 96 and 90.1 per cent said no to state-sanctioned drug centres. And a separate poll shows families and country people are the most strongly opposed. The strong reaction was revealed as Prime Minister John Howard appealed to Victorian Liberals to block the drug plan. "I hope they use whatever means at their disposal to do so," he said. The state Liberals have an Upper House majority. Mr Howard rejected Drug Policy Expert Committee chairman David Penington's claim heroin rooms saved lives. "There is no clear evidence from overseas experience that they reduce the drug problem," he said. "They will get no help of any kind from the Federal Government." Mr Howard called on local communities to use their power of veto over the heroin rooms. The Herald Sun survey revealed different levels of support across the city and state. Generally, 40 per cent of Victorians supported the rooms compared with 35 per cent of people nationally. Fifty-one per cent of single people aged 40 or under backed the rooms. So did 47 per cent of inner-Melbourne residents. But 43 per cent of people who are under 40 and have partners said injecting rooms were unacceptable. Support among people in the outer-metropolitan suburbs dropped to 39 per cent. Only 35 per cent of country people gave their support. The statistics were compiled exclusively for the Herald Sun by AustraliaSCAN, a research group that tracks shifts in social attitude and lifestyles. The under-25 age group was most likely not to have an opinion on injecting rooms. "There is clearly a large group of people saying it (injecting houses) is worth a try," AustraliaSCAN partner David Chalke said. "They're saying let's get it off the streets, even if it doesn't necessarily fix the problem." The research was based on interviews with 2000 people and included group discussions. Mr Chalke described country Victoria as being more traditional in its outlook. He said the research had shown Victorians were sympathetic towards drug users. But they had little time for dealers. "While they find the notion of hard drugs quite hateful they tend to feel sympathy for the individual user," Mr Chalke said. But Mr Howard said the best way to show sympathy for users was to provide medical and psychological help 96 not injecting rooms. "I think we should be putting more and more resources into rehabilitation," he said. "I think they send the wrong signal. They give a degree of acceptability to drug use which I don't support. They create local difficulties as far as the location of them is concerned. "They have the potential to attract criminal elements to areas where they do not now go. "Overall, I think they say to the world, well, we've given up trying to persuade people not to start taking drugs." - --- MAP posted-by: Greg