Pubdate: Thu, 06 May 1999 Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 1999 Contact: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ Author: Heather Brook INJECTION OF HYSTERIA YOUR editorial on the Wayside Chapers safe injecting room (Daily Telegraph, May 4) described Tony Trimingham - one of the room's founders as "misguided" and "misinformed". This is inaccurate, and you should be ashamed. The Telegraph paints Mr Trimingham (and like-minded people who have lost sons, daughters and siblings to heroin) as "sincere" but hysterical, as if mentally "touched" by the madness of grief. However, people like Mr Trimingham know much more about drugs and drug policies than most people. For us, the issues are very concrete. It's not about moral rights and wrongs. It's not about messages. For us it's much more simple - we ask, "Would this have helped my family without harming others?" We are not uninformed. We read medical reports. We read sociological journals. We listen to criminologists. We examine the data. We know that providing safe places to inject, with medical staff on hand, will (and does) save lives. HEATHER BROOK Ainsle, ACT - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck