Pubdate: Thu, 30 May 2002
Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright: 2002 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/113
Author: Piers Akerman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

DAMNED LIES AND A STUDY OF JUNKIES

THE Carr Government has shamelessly extended the licence of its Kings Cross 
shooting gallery and sidelined new-chum Opposition Leader John Brogden who 
locked his supporters into a disgracefully uninformed conscience vote on 
the issue, writes PIERS AKERMAN.

The reality is that the shooting gallery's much touted 12-month performance 
evaluation just does not stand up to scrutiny. This was only to be expected 
as all similar centres internationally have run into problems assessing 
their effectiveness.

At a cost to taxpayers of $5.6 million, the centre is unable to prove that 
it has cut drug overdose deaths as effectively as other states which have 
not caved into media-driven middle-class guilt.

In Victoria, where the Government has not given junkies a green light, 
overdose deaths have dropped from 359 in 1999, to 49 in 2001, to just 11 at 
the most recent count this year.

In Western Australia, another state where junkies are not given the benefit 
of a purpose-built taxpayer-funded shooting gallery, overdose deaths 
dropped from 82 in 2000, to 36 in 2001 to just three so far this year.

In NSW, such figures are not accessible but sources say they do not reflect 
a lot of difference to the general pattern. Why not?

Over the 12-month period of operation, the Kings Cross crew recorded what 
it called 250 drug overdoses among 163 of its 2729 registered users. Its 
statement that not a life was lost at the shooting gallery has been 
trumpeted by its media supporters - but that is a meaningless statistic 
too, as ambulances whisked the seven people who needed major intervention 
to hospital for treatment.

A more meaningful number might be 17,937 - that is the number of needles 
and syringes given away on 2175 occasions (an average of 8.25 per 
customer), which would surely indicate that the shooting gallery is a very 
poor last choice of destination for the majority of junkies who prefer to 
shoot-up where they want, when they want.

Another number which goes to heart of the shooting gallery is 5170 - that 
is the number of times advice was given to the centre's users on how to 
shoot-up. Almost three times as many people (55 per cent) sought advice on 
how to be a junkie than the next most popular request (19 per cent) for 
information on common themes such as drug use, living skills, relationship 
and custody issues.

Oh, yes, the 252 given advice on actual drug treatment made up just 3 per 
cent of the centre's customers and the 162 who received drug and alcohol 
information constituted just 2 per cent of clients.

But hey, the Carr Government is prepared to tip in $5.6 million, or about 
$15,300-a-day of your money to keep this show rolling, so why should you worry?

There are also some observations on the effect of the shooting gallery on 
the neighbourhood which beggar belief.

IT was either Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli who said there are three 
kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

Crime statistician Don Weatherburn may be trying to find a fourth 
definition for the rubbery evaluations of loitering, and pedestrian and 
criminal activity included in the report and his personal interpretation 
that heroin shortages have driven up some crime levels.

Locals claim that the number of loiterers opposite the shooting gallery has 
increased and that drug dealers have moved to a location outside the Kings 
Cross station from the Springfield mall but that the survey did not include 
them.

They say that the numbers of pedestrians has decreased and that criminal 
activity has increased - perhaps not in the immediate area but certainly in 
neighbouring suburbs such as Paddington and Woollahra as Rose Bay police 
are well aware.

It is certainly difficult to see how the number of pedestrians in the 
neighbourhood could not have dropped since the Government invited the 
junkies in last May.

After all, eight hotels have closed since October 2000, and the loss of 
their staff, let alone the well publicised decline in the number of 
international tourists since September 11 should have made some difference.

By any standards, the methodology for the so-called evaluation was 
laughable, the bulk of the data on the centre's activities coming from the 
junkies themselves who are, as is widely recognised, almost pathologically 
incapable of telling the truth.
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