Pubdate: Tue, 04 Jul 2000
Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 Canberra Times
Contact:  http://www.canberratimes.com.au/
Author: Anthony M. Winch

INJECTING ROOMS ALREADY HERE

Anyone who has used a public toilet in Canberra must have seen the
abandoned syringes on the floor. In one automatic toilet I visited
recently I counted 11 syringes sprawled over the tiles. Each needle on
a toilet floor is a very real risk to a curious child or the owner of
a poorly placed foot. It is a deadly situation. The central argument
however, of those against a safe injecting room is that ''it might
send the wrong message to our kids". This argument deals with remote
possibilities in a hypothetical scenario. Let's start living in the
real world, the injecting rooms are already here. We are all at risk
not just the minds of our (obviously unastute) youth.

ANTHONY M. WINCH,
Cook
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