Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Author: Matthew Russell, Local Government Writer COUNCIL PLANS LEGAL HEROIN INJECTING ROOMS South Sydney Council hopes to take the lead in approving legal, safe injecting rooms within its boundaries in response to rising complaints about backstreet overdoses, drug users shooting up and syringes littering streets. Already, two needle exchange centres in the municipality issue about 1.2 million syringes a year but the council estimates it collects only 25,000 of those from needle bins. At last night's council meeting, the mayor, Councillor Vic Smith, said safe injecting rooms would be permitted if a report by its officers determined it was legally possible. He would try to set up the rooms with the co-operation of police and health workers. But to avoid a "bottleneck" of drug users in South Sydney, Cr Smith would ask other councils with similar problems to investigate having such rooms in their areas. Safe injecting rooms were high on the political agenda last year when a NSW joint parliamentary committee, acting on a recommendation from the Wood Royal Commission, was investigating whether to have a trial. Justice Wood said safe injecting rooms might reduce police corruption, endemic when illegal shooting galleries operated in Kings Cross, and a public health benefit might result for drug users and the community. When the committee was established, the Premier, Mr Carr, said the Government would approve a trial only if both sides of politics supported it. The Opposition Leader, Mr Collins, did not, and in February the committee voted six to four against it. The director of the Wayside Chapel at Kings Cross, the Rev Raymond Richmond, said that while a lack of political will squashed approval for a trial, such progressive health initiatives had widespread local support. "I have advocated for a better health focus on heroin addiction rather than a legalistic approach to putting people in jail, and I would certainly support local government attempts to establish these," he said. The mayoral minute circulated before last night's council meeting said legal safe injecting rooms were favoured by the community as long they were not near parks, playgrounds or homes. The director of Darlinghurst's Kirketon Road Centre, Dr Ingrid van Beek, agreed with the mayor: "In a telephone survey undertaken in Kings Cross last year, 68 per cent of people surveyed agreed the establishment of safe injecting rooms is in the interest of the local community." Having a regulated site for drug users had many benefits, she said, including providing a point where drug counsellors and health workers could offer help to users, providing a safer environment for ambulance drivers than alleys when dealing with overdoses, and removing syringes from streets. Commercial premises were already being used by hard-drug users, without those benefits. The Kirketon Road Centre was working with police and health agencies, examining how to establish such sites, Ms van Beek said, and the response had so far been favourable. She said police had discretionary powers to choose whether to arrest drug users and were far more interested in traffickers. "There are benefits for both drug users and local communities," she said. "The benefits accrue to the drug users in terms of their personal health and social welfare by overdose prevention and HIV prevention; and in terms of the community, it improves the local amenity, such as removing discarded syringes from the streets, and increases public order, and there is a greater sense of safety and security on the street." - --- Checked-by: (trikydik)