BY DALE MILLS
SYDNEY — The final report on the medically supervised injecting centre in the red-light district of Kings Cross has approved its continuation. It was the English-speaking world's first state-approved illegal-drug injecting centre. Other such centres are now operating in Holland, Germany and Switzerland.
The report from the 18-month trial was released on July 9. It explains that, as a result of the centre, 1400 people have been referred to heroin treatment programs and more than 400 overdoses have been treated. Nine lives have been saved.
The centre's success contrasts with an appalling death rate: one in eight recorded deaths of 15-24 year' olds are from drug overdoses.
The favourable report was the best news for drug reform in a decade, according to one of the centre's prominent supporters, Greens parliamentarian Lee Rhiannon.
"This report debunks the hysteria of the zero tolerance cheer squad of PM John Howard and his drugs guru [Salvation Army] Major Brian Watters", said Rhiannon in a July 9 press statement.
The centre's ethos emphasises harm minimisation. Recognising the widespread use of illegal drugs, the aim is to provide a clean environment in which users, bringing their own drugs, can get clean needles and counselling. Medical staff are on hand to help people who accidentally overdose or who inject drugs that have been "cut" with harmful impurities.
The political right, such as Watters, rejects harm minimisation in favour of "zero tolerance". This approach advocates harsh sentences without discretion, even for minor infringements of drug laws. This results in more people going to jail, more people injecting in an unsupervised environment and more drug suppliers operating in organised gangs.
There is little evidence that "zero tolerance" will, as claimed, stop, or even reduce, drug supplies. "Zero tolerance" policies certainly provide vast powers to the police, which are used to harass people who often have enough problems in their lives.
The arguments against injecting rooms are unconvincing. One is that such places provide a "honey pot" for drug suppliers, but there is no demonstrated evidence of this. As drug demand is greater than drug supply, users seek out dealers, not the other way around. This is why the drugs are so expensive: between $300 and $400 a gram, and considerably more when bought in smaller doses to be used for one or two "hits".
It is not unusual to be offered drugs for sale in Kings Cross while walking down a street. However, this creates a false impression. The "suppliers" are often desperate for money, and often selling fake wares. The overwhelming bulk of illegal drugs sales in Sydney take place away from the Cross.
"Busts" involving large quantities of drugs by the police may be celebrated by zero tolerence advocates and given maximum television coverage, but they have a questionable effect on drug supplies. When the supply of hard drugs decreases as the result of large seizures, the price per gram goes up, maintaining the profit margin for the illegal bosses. In Sydney a year ago, for example, a shortage of heroin meant that the price was high. Now that supplies are arriving again from Afghanistan, heroin prices have dropped.
So, has the centre worked?
No-one has died in the Sydney injecting centre during the trial, indeed, not a single death through overdose has occurred anywhere in the world's 50-odd supervised centres.
The centre reduces the use of dirty needles by providing clean ones, thus reducing blood-borne infections such as HIV, and hepatitis B and C. Providing a safe and legal place to inject also reduces the use of public toilets and parks as injecting venues, reduces the litter of used needles and provides users with easy access to medical, counselling and social services support.
Given the very successful outcome of the Sydney trial, it is difficult to find coherent arguments against the extension of the service. That did not stop the July 11 Australian, in a classic piece of confused thinking, asking "What would be done by continuing — or proliferating — such a service?" Saving lives is obviously not enough for the Murdoch press.
The July 11 Australian also reported that Canberra was likely to be the next site for an injecting room, with the necessary laws already in place. This is badly needed, as Canberra has the highest level of heroin use in Australia. ACT health minister Simon Corbell is expected to take a formal proposal to cabinet in the next two months.
However, because the ACT is not a state, the federal government will have the power to override ACT law in order to stop the centre. It is not known if the Coalition, which opposes injecting centres, intends to do so.
It appears as if the other state governments are following "zero tolerance" idiocy. The state Labor government in Victoria recently re-affirmed its opposition to legalising injecting rooms. The same approach has been taken by Labor in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
The police are officially in favour of cooperating with the centre. In its September 9, 2001 edition, however, the Sydney Star Observer revealed that plain clothes police officers had been sent to stand outside the centre with sniffer dogs trained to pick up the illegal drugs people were bringing to use inside the centre. Following the story, the police retreated on using dogs near the centre.
The centre is at 66 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross. Access is from Darlinghurst Road. More information can be found at .
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, July 30, 2003.
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