AUSTRALIA:
New
South
Wales
to
Heed
Experts,
Open
Safe
Injecting
Room
8/6/99
Peter Watney for DRCNet New South Wales spent 17 years resisting a judicial inquiry into corruption in the Police Force, because they assured the public that there was no corruption. The Royal Commission into police corruption later found systemic corruption that fed on illicit drugs, on prostitution and on pedophilia, in that order. The Royal Commission recommended, inter alia, that supervised safe injecting rooms be officially established in Sydney. The NSW Government refused, on the grounds it would give "the wrong message" about drug abuse. Overdose deaths doubled over the past four years. Last winter, in response to a picture on the front page of the Herald Sun which showed a young boy being helped by an older man to inject in a lane way of Inner Sydney, the State Premier promised to hold a Drug Summit after the March election. That Drug Summit recommended -- inter alia -- that safe injecting facilities be established. The Premier has now announced that a legal heroin injecting room will be established in Kings Cross, and run by the Sisters of Charity and St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. It will take until next year to find suitable premises acceptable to the local community and to amend the State laws. The safe injecting room will be staffed with medical and social counselors, and will operate for an 18 month trial period. Users will have to supply their own heroin. The Prime Minister of Australia and his appointee as Chairman of the Drugs Advisory Council have said they deplore the wrong signal the facility will give.
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