Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 Source: Illawarra Mercury (Australia) Copyright: Illawarra Newspapers Contact: http://mercury.illnews.com.au/ HEROIN SHOOTING GALLERY A GOER The state's first legal heroin shooting gallery will open in Sydney's Kings Cross next year to try to get addicts off the streets and prevent overdose deaths. The scheme is part of a radical revamp of the state's drug laws, which also includes a cannabis cautioning system and regional trials, unveiled in the Illawarra yesterday, of a compulsory treatment program for small-time users of heroin, speed, LSD and ecstasy. Most other state leaders greeted the announcement with scepticism, saying they did not believe a safe injecting room trial was the answer to the nation's drug problem. However the ACT predicted it would have its own safe injecting room set up by the end of the year. NSW Premier Bob Carr denied going soft on drugs, saying he had to look at new ways of getting drug users into treatment. He said his government had rejected proposals to both completely decriminalise cannabis and to scrap the offence of self-administration of a prohibited drug. Catholic order the Sisters of Charity and St Vincent's Hospital will trial a medically supervised injecting room for 18 months in Kings Cross, one of the city's heroin markets. "The point about this is to get heroin use off the streets, out of the laneways (and to) prevent the continuing degradation of the environment of Kings Cross," Mr Carr said. "To get people into an environment where treatment is part of it ... and yes, on the way through we might save a few lives." St Vincent's Hospital alcohol and drug service head Alex Wodak said the injecting room would have 50,000 visits a year and prevent up to 40 overdose deaths. He said similar facilities in Europe had not experienced a single overdose death, although Sisters of Charity chief executive Tina Clifton acknowledged they were untested in Australia. "Certainly uncharted waters, but the sort of work that we need to do there is very familiar to us, (with) the expertise we'll provide we don't feel that it's dangerous," she said. The room will open seven hours a day, every day and its location will be decided after consultation with the local community. Other communities in drug hotspots such as Cabramatta have opposed injecting rooms and the Kings Cross facility will be the only one allowed in the state during the trial. Safe injecting rooms were the most controversial recommendation of the recent NSW drug summit and were also backed by the Wood Royal Commission in 1997. Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski said the shooting gallery would send the wrong message to young people. "Today's decision is a great disappointment to me and all those parents who had hoped the Premier would stand firm and reject any move to soften our approach to illicit drugs," she said. Morals campaigner, the Reverend Fred Nile, vowed to organise a picket when the injecting room opened. NSW Users and AIDS Association spokeswoman Annie Madden welcomed the plan but said there should be at least three trials. "They save lives ... that's the bottom line," she said. Mr Carr also announced a 12-month state-wide trial where people caught with less than 15g of cannabis could receive two cautions from police rather than face prosecution. In the Illawarra and the Far North Coast, a scheme would be trialled under which small-time hard-drug users with no previous convictions for drugs, violence or sexual assault would be cautioned if they agreed to treatment. The government sent ministers throughout the state yesterday to promote the drugs package. Other initiatives include a youth drug court and $158 million extra for rehabilitation and treatment, including an overhaul of the controversial methadone program. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder