Pubdate: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 Source: Canberra Times (Australia) Contact: Website: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ Author: Peter Clack DRUG-WAR FIRST FOR ACT LIKELY Canberra would become the first city in Australia to allow drug users to inject themselves with heroin at medically supervised injecting clinics, under radical new approaches being considered by the ACT Government. The ACT Minister for Health, Independent MLA Michael Moore, said yesterday that a report before the Government - Sexual Health and Blood-borne Diseases - - called for the creation of early-intervention centres and safe injecting places. The report, by Professor Peter Baume, of the University of NSW, had been tabled in the Legislative Assembly and the Government was seriously considering its recommendations against a rising tide of heroin overdoses in Canberra. The Australian Federal Police and ACT Ambulance Service appealed on Friday for governments to come up with new ways of dealing with drug overdoses, deaths and drug-related crime. They said that last month in Canberra paramedics had attended 42 overdose incidents, five times the rate for July, 1997. There were 10 deaths last year from heroin overdoses. Mr Moore said safe injecting places would give users the chance to manage their lifestyles without dying in the process. An early-intervention centre would ensure trained medical staff were on hand to alleviate the dangers of high-grade purity and overdoses. Legislation to permit safe injecting places would require majority support in the Assembly and the cooperation of police, legal and health agencies. If the places are introduced, Canberra's estimated population of about 4000 heroin-users would be allowed to inject under medical supervision without fear of arrest. Heroin overdose victims can already seek urgent medical help from the ambulance service without fear of arrest by police. Mr Moore said many were desperate to leave the chaotic lifestyle, which often forced them to resort to crime. They had few options under present laws. 'I am not in a position to establish it by myself; it is a matter for government as a whole,' he said. But if the changes were adopted, the ACT would become the first jurisdiction in Australia to provide safe injecting places. The Assembly had backed a heroin trial in Canberra, but this had been vetoed by the Federal Government, which instead began a new drive to combat drug dealers and importers. The ACT's Minister for Justice and Community Safety, Gary Humphries, said on Friday that national efforts by police and customs agents detected less than 10 per cent of heroin imported into Australia. As little as 1 per cent of heroin coming into the ACT was detected by police, he said. A meeting of capital city lord mayors in Brisbane called recently for safe injecting centres across Australia to deal with the tide of heroin deaths and overdoses. Mr Moore said the zero-tolerance approach had failed, and hundreds were dying in tragic circumstances across Australia. Injecting places would be illegal under present laws, so the Government had to examine its options to find an effective way to introduce them. HYDEN, WA: The West Australian Nationals have called for free heroin to be given to registered addicts in a move to cut the state's escalating crime rate. - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett