Victorian Parliament can save lives by trialling safe injecting room

For more than the past decade, a medically supervised injecting centre has operated safely and with community and political support in inner Sydney's Kings Cross
The Age (Australia)
Monday, September 18, 2017

The injecting room at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings CrossDozens of people have fatally overdosed on heroin in the gutters, laneways and front gardens of Richmond. Not a single person has ever died in a safe-injecting space anywhere in the world. Yet the Victorian Labor government and Coalition opposition ignore growing calls to expedite something that not only prevents death, but puts addicts on a pathway to recovery. Experts in addiction and public health want a trial. Although some citizens are concerned by a safe injecting room, more and more residents and business owners, distressed by seeing ill and dead people and by being burgled, support a trial. Academic studies and official inquiries recommend a trial. The Coroner's Court wants one. And now the Police Association is adding its voice.