POLICE Minister Michael Costa faced a tough first day in Parliament yesterday when he was forced to answer questions on his stance on the decriminalisation of cannabis. The State Opposition claimed that in 1999 when he was Labor Council chief, Mr Costa claimed the state government had been "too cautious" in its approach to drug law reform. Mr Costa rejected this, saying the Drug Summit had resulted in reform, in particular the cannabis cautioning program for those caught with small amounts of the drug. [continues 150 words]
MORE than 1500 addicts have signed up to use Australia's first government sanctioned injecting room in Kings Cross, it was revealed yesterday. Since opening six months ago, the medically supervised injecting centre has dealt with 88 drug overdoses on its Kings Cross premises. It has also defied expectations and not acted as a magnet for drug dealers and other criminals in the area, preliminary data reveals. Premier Bob Carr told Parliament yesterday 1507 addicts had registered to use the clinic run by the Uniting Church, while 623 had been referred for treatment. [continues 196 words]
Injecting Room Under Surveillance THE Privacy Commission is investigating a surveillance video camera mounted by a Kings Cross businessman and aimed at Australias first legal heroin injecting room. Andrew Strauss, owner of Blinky's Photos in Darlinghurst Rd. has his video camera pointed at the entrance to the Uniting Church's injecting room next door. The Daily Telegraph yesterday learned the Uniting Church had asked Mr Strauss to remove the camera or point it away from their door, and is considering legal action to have it removed amid concerns clients could be "intimidated" from entering. [continues 207 words]
Australia's first legal heroin injecting room is open for business but so far only a handful of addicts have used the Kings Cross centre. The room opened in secret on Saturday night and just 11 drug users have used the Government-sanctioned room to shoot up in since then. Just two addicts used the room yesterday, while another turned up to register with the centre. The centre has already had its first success -- a 20-year-old man who shot up in the room on Sunday night returned yesterday to be referred to a local detox facility for buprenorphine treatment. [continues 377 words]
Addicts using Australia's first legal heroin injecting room will be asked their sexual "identity" and whether they have been paid for sex in the month before they shoot up.They will also have to provide a full medical history and detail their alcohol use, according to a draft registration form obtained by The Daily Telegraph. As part of the registration procedure at the Uniting Church-run centre, addicts will be required to reveal personal details including whether they have been in prison in the past 12 months. [continues 342 words]
JUNKIES have turned the site of the historic home of the father of Australian Federation into a shooting gallery littered with rubbish and syringes.Once part of the home of Sir Henry Parkes, heroin addicts are using the underpass and creek at Canley Vale to shoot up, sleep and sometimes wash in the filthy water. Sir Henry's portrait features on the new $5 note in recognition of his contribution to Federation. But at his former residence yesterday the only acknowledgement of Sir Henry was a battered and worn plaque attached to a tree trunk. [continues 402 words]
THE Uniting Church will apply to the State Government by tomorrow for a licence to run Australiaís first legal heroin Injecting room. The injecting room looks set to be up and running in the "final quarter" of this year, most probably in October. Church spokesman the Reverend Harry Herbert said the application had been "on the verge of being lodged" with the Government. Mr Herbert said the process of applying for the licence and ensuring the application met all the Government criteria was "quite time consuming". [continues 55 words]
SEVENTY at-risk children have died in NSW during the past three years despite being known to the Department of Community Services, a new report has revealed. Even though the department was warned by other agencies or family members about the plight of the children, who were living with drug-addicted parents, DOCS staff didn't investigate many cases, the Child Death Review Team Report found. The report also found on some occasions, when DOCS decided to investigate claims of abuse and neglect, its inquiries were "inadequate". [continues 559 words]
A FORMER Chinese takeaway in Kings Cross is the likely site for Australia's first heroin injecting room. The Hughes St site is one of two under consideration by the Uniting Church and unveiled to a public meeting of Kings Cross residents last night. The other proposed site is a former laundry in Orwell St, Kings Cross. Both sites will form the basis for further consultation with the local community, Health Department and police before they are put before the NSW Government for approval. Only one will be approved. [continues 282 words]
FORMER Royal Commissioner Justice James Wood has called on his fellow judges to take a more active role in the State's drug laws. The Supreme Court judge said judges should follow their conscience and speak out "against unjust laws and policies". He said judges who remain silent in the face of laws they believed to be bad were allowing "injustice to be committed in their names". Drawing a parallel with the role of the judiciary in Nazi Germany and the apartheid regime in South Africa, he said judges who did not speak out became part of the problem. [continues 436 words]
THE Uniting Church may run Australia's first legal heroin shooting gallery after the Vatican ordered the Sisters of Charity to abandon the project. Uniting Church leaders will meet NSW Special Minister of State John Della Bosca next week to discuss their possible involvement in the safe injecting room. Amid the controversy over the Catholic Church's intervention, the State Government's drug reform bill passed the Upper House late on Thursday night paving the way for an 18-month trial in Kings Cross. [continues 342 words]
THE Vatican has ordered the Darlinghurst-based Sisters of Charity Health Service to withdraw from plans to run a safe injecting room. The directive from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has put at risk the State Government's plan to open Australia's first legal heroin shooting gallery. Sydney's Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Edward Clancy, received the instruction in a letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Vatican on Monday and broke the news to the sisters yesterday. [continues 342 words]
NSW could become a "magnet" for junkies and drug dealers if drug law reform proposal were adopted, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. The State Government's historic five-day Drug Summit closed yesterday with delegates recommending the consideration of safe injecting rooms and relaxed cannabis laws. Drug law reform advocates are already calling for medically supervised injecting rooms to be tested in at least five locations across the State including Kings Cross, Redfern and Cabramatta. But a skeptical Prime Minister said participants in the Drug Summit and the State Government were "seeing a change as an end in itself". [continues 263 words]
PREMIER Bob Carr last night urged delegates at the NSW Drug Summit to pass a resolution allowing shooting galleries. Mr Carr said he wanted the Government to consider the proposal but did not reveal whether the Government would agree to it. "I would want to consider over the next six weeks the proposal set out in 3.15 rather than what's indicated in a range of amendments set out before you," Mr Carr told the delegates. Proposal 3.15 says that governments should not veto proposals for trialling safe injecting rooms from non-government organisations. [continues 297 words]
Director of Public Prosecutions Nick Cowdery yesterday described the State Government's Drug Summit as a "waste of time" saying the results of the gathering were "rigged". In an extraordinary attack, Mr Cowdery said the only result would be a "tinkering" around the edges of present drug laws. Heroin importation should still be illegal, but opium poppies should be grown in controlled conditions in Tasmania, Mr Cowdery told a NSW Law Society meeting at Warwick Farm. Premier Bob Carr last night refused to respond to Mr Cowdery's claims. [continues 291 words]
POLICE Commissioner Peter Ryan will today call for NSW drug laws to be overhauled to make them "more workable" and "not shrouded in ambiguity". The Daily Telegraph has learned Mr Ryan will tell delegates at the State Government's Drug Summit that some current laws are "difficult to police" because they lack legal clarity. Among the laws the Commissioner wants amended are those relating to search warrants and controlled, or "sting", operations. Mr Ryan joins drug expert Professor David Pennington and Bureau of Crime Statistics head Don Weatherburn as keynote speakers on the first day of the five-day Drug Summit being held at Parliament House. It will be attended by all state MPs as well as about 80 expert delegates. [continues 430 words]
Labor MPs Are Likely To Be Given A Conscience Vote On All Issues At Next Week's Drug Summit. Premier Bob Carr said delegates would vote on a wide range of issues including the use of safe injecting rooms or "shooting galleries" during the May 17-21 meeting at NSW Parliament. Mr Carr was forced to defend the invitation list after Director of Public Prosecutions Nick Cowdery, a critic of the Government's drug policy, was not among the 80 non-parliamentary participants. [continues 331 words]
ECSTASY, speed and heroin should be administered by doctors or "medically qualified personnel", the NSW Greens say. Drugs should be tested for quality, potency and purity, the Greens said in their NSW election policy statement released yesterday. The party, which already has one member of the Upper Rouse, is also advocating an end to prosecutions for personal drug use. The Greens are also seeking an end to any further approvals for new roads, calling for the creation of an integrated public transport network. [continues 74 words]
POLICE will be given the power to use illegal drugs to catch corrupt officers under legislation to be introduced in State Parliament today. Drugs such as heroin, ecstasy and cocaine seized during routine operations will become the "bait" for police integrity tests, The Daily Telegraph has learned. Attorney-General Jeff Shaw said yesterday there was a problem in the current laws in that police could use the drugs in "sting" operations but they could not legally obtain the substances. The new law will close a loophole that has led to courts striking out evidence against officers caught in police traps. It will give the the Police Commissioner the authority for his officers to engage in "unlawful activity" for the purposes of investigation. [continues 180 words]
THE mother of ecstasy victim Anna Wood will run for State Parliament in the wake of Education Minister John Aquilina writing a reference for the club where her daughter took the drug. Angela Wood yesterday told The Daily Telegraph she will contest Liberal Party pre-selection for the northern beaches State seat of Manly. But Mrs Wood, who joined the Liberal Party's Seaforth branch three months ago, faces opposition within the area from several candidates including solicitor David Begg and former North Shore MP Phillip Smiles. [continues 437 words]
