Pubdate: Tue, 10 Aug 1999
Source: Australian Associated Press (Australia)
Copyright: 1999 Australian Associated Press

HEROIN DEATHS TO RISE IF CAMERAS USED: YOUTH WORKER

A PROPOSAL to use video cameras to film drug deals in Melbourne's west would
lead to more heroin deaths as it had in Sydney, a prominent youth worker
said today.

Les Twentyman said heroin deaths in Sydney's Fairfield and Cabramatta areas
had risen since the introduction of video cameras.

Traders in the western Melbourne suburb of Footscray plan to use video
cameras to film drug deals before making citizens' arrests in an effort to
combat the local heroin problem.

A meeting of about 50 traders voted last night to buy cameras to film heroin
dealing in the area and hire security guards to help make arrests.

But Mr Twentyman said young people would move to other areas where they
would not be picked up.

If injecting was done in the open, "people will call an ambulance and these
young people are generally revived", he said.

Mr Twentyman said the proposal to carry out citizens' arrests was
"absolutely outrageous".

"Are we going to have John Wayne riding down the street? It's like going
back to the cowboys."

Mr Twentyman said the problem was that the community was procrastinating
about installing safe injecting rooms to counter what he called "a very,
very serious, urgent health problem".

In the Netherlands, which has safe injecting rooms, there were only 32
deaths from heroin overdose last year, compared with 670 in Australia, he
said.

There had not been one death in safe injecting rooms in the three European
countries that had them.

- ---
MAP posted-by: Don Beck