Drug injecting room set to become permanent #supervisedinjection

ABC News (Australia)
September 15, 2010

Drug injecting room set to become permanent

The New South Wales Government has announced plans to make the medically-supervised drug injecting centre at Kings Cross permanent.

The centre has been operating on a trial basis since 2001.

A review of the centre, commissioned by the government earlier this year, concluded it has successfully managed more than 3,000 overdoses and helped 12,000 drug users.

Premier Kristina Keneally says the government wants to provide more certainty for the centre because it has made a positive difference to people's lives.

"In an ideal world, the need for such a facility wouldn't exist," she said.

"The reality is different and the centre has provided help to people who are most at risk - particularly from overdose death, disease and street violence.

"It has also reduced the incidence of public injecting."

The Kings Cross Police Commander, Superintendent Tony Crandell says that while drug prohibition is not working, the centre has had a dramatic impact on drug deaths.

"Since the injecting centre my officers report upon those deaths infrequently," he said.

"Additionally I'm told by business owners and also residents of the area that the number of needles has significantly reduced in Kings Cross and that the amenity of the area has improved greatly."

Ms Keneally says there will still be extensive oversight of the centre if it becomes permanent.

"We will of course in formalising the facility ensure that it undergo regular statutory evaluations every five years," she said.

"The NSW Police Commissioner and the Director General of Health will also retain the authority to immediately revoke the centre's licence should it ever be necessary."

The centre's founding Medical Director, Dr Ingrid Van Beek has welcomed the proposal.

"It's particularly great that the work the staff have done there day in day out has finally been recognised," she said.

"These issues are too complex to be subject to party-politicking."

The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell says he will allow a conscience vote on the proposal.

---------------------------------

Sydney Morning Herald
September 15, 2010

Drug experts support injecting centre

AAP

The decision to end the nine-year "trial" of Sydney's Medically
Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) and make it a permanent part of the
NSW health system should be applauded, say doctors and public health
advocates.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) said the Kings
Cross-based facility, unique in Australia, had proven itself as a model
for reducing the community-wide impact of drugs while preventing
overdose deaths among users.

"Since the establishment of the MSIC, ambulance call-outs to drug
overdoses has fallen by 80 per cent in the Kings Cross area, a
significant achievement," said Dr Alex Wodak, chair of the Policy and
Advocacy Committee for Addiction Medicine at the RACP.
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"It is high time that the charade of the temporary research status of
the MSIC was ended."

Dr Wodak said the facility, which opened amid controversy in May 2001,
had handled about 3,500 drug over-doses without recording a fatality and
now oversaw about 200 injections a day.

It also allowed some of Australia's "most severely marginalised
injecting drug users" to be referred for additional health or social
welfare services on 7,000 occasions.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally on Wednesday announced she would introduce
legislation to end the trial status, though the MSIC would remain the
only legalised injecting centre in NSW.

Ms Keneally said the centre had helped more than 12,000 drug users and
distributed more than 300,000 clean needles and syringes.

"It has saved lives, it has reduced disease risk, it has reduced the
incidence of public injecting, and quite frankly, it has brought people
who live on the margins, who live on the edge, into contact with health
services and drug treatment services," Ms Keneally said.

The government's decision has the backing of The Public Health
Association of Australia and the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine,
which points to lower rates of needle sharing curbing the spread of
blood-borne disease.

Despite fears the centre would increase crime, NSW Police Superintendent
Tony Crandell said he believed crime in the Kings Cross area had gone
down since the injecting centre opened.

"Policing categories of robbery and theft have either plateaued or
declined, and it has certainly declined since 2006," he said.

Back-street deaths in Kings Cross from drug abuse and overdoses had also
declined in the past nine years, he said.

But Drug Free Australia secretary Gary Christian has claimed the centre
encourages users to take risks.

"We've spoken to ex-clients of the injecting room who said that the
safety allowed them to experiment with high does of heroin ..." he told
ABC Radio.

The Greens have signalled their support for the move while NSW
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell, who has criticised the centre for not
meeting key goals, said he would allow his MPs a conscience vote on
legislation to make the centre permanent.

Despite the move in NSW, Victorian Premier John Brumby ruled out
establishing a drug injecting centre in Melbourne saying the city had
other initiatives that had reduced over-dose deaths.

"I think we're getting on top of this problem and we've got no plans to
introduce safe injecting rooms," Mr Brumby told reporters on Wednesday.

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