Pubdate: Mon, 5 Jan 2009
Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright: 2009 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/113
Author: Kelvin Bissett
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

KINGS CROSS INJECTING ROOM FAILS TO REDUCE OVERDOSE DEATH RATES

THE Kings Cross safe injecting centre made no difference at all to 
overdose death rates in its local area in its first five years of operation.

Statistics show death rates from drug overdose in the area around the 
injecting room are no less than in other areas across NSW.

The findings into the $2.5 million-a-year facility are contained in 
an unreported independent evaluation that studied autopsy rates.

The report assessed overdose deaths from heroin, morphine and other 
opioids in those postcodes - 2010 and 2011 - near the injecting 
centre and concluded that deaths rates fell at the same rate they did 
elsewhere in NSW.

The most likely conclusion is that the falls were the likely result 
of the heroin drought.

Between the period May 1, 2001, and May 1, 2006, deaths fell from an 
average four a month to one a month in the two postcodes adjacent to 
the injecting centre. But elsewhere in the state there were also 
sharp falls - from an average 28 deaths a month to eight.

"In both groups, there was approximately a 70 per cent decrease in 
average monthly deaths from the period prior to the MSIC opening and 
the period following its establishment," the report concluded. It is 
widely acknowledged that a heroin drought, or a shortage of the drug 
on the streets, over the past decade - partly due to effective 
policing - has led to steadily falling heroin deaths everywhere.

The findings in the report, Evaluation Report No. 4: Evaluation of 
service operation and overdose-related events, concludes the 
difference in deaths in the local area and the rest of NSW "were not 
statistically significant".

The analysis of opioid-related deaths was based on autopsy reports 
supplied by the Division of Analytical Laboratories, managed by the 
Sydney West Area Health Service.

A Freedom of Information request seeking to update the figures, using 
the same overdose death rates determined by autopsy, has to date been 
unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the SWAHS is claiming that release of the 
same data by postcode and statewide was likely to be an unreasonable 
diversion of resources.

The centre's lack of success in saving lives clashes with its stated 
primary objective "to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with 
drug overdoses". However, the centre had reduced ambulance call-outs 
to suspected overdoses and opioid-related poisonings at local 
hospital emergency departments.

Centre spokeswoman Mardi Stewart said ambulance callouts were a "more 
sensitive indicator" of the centre's effectiveness. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake