Since its opening mid-last year, Melbourne鈥檚 safe injecting room in North Richmond has received significant media attention, not all of it positive.
Medically supervised injecting centres (MSIC)
鈥溾, screamed the front page of the Herald Sun on July 6, in a very clever pun on North Richmond鈥檚 safe injecting room that had opened a few days earlier.
鈥淎ddicts snub injecting facility鈥 and 鈥淣othing changed in heroin hotspot鈥 sat above the main cover slogan to emphasise the point about ungrateful 鈥渄ruggies鈥.
The recent pill testing trial at the Groovin鈥 the Moo music festival, demonstrated why pill testing is an effective harm minimisation activity but also why we need to end drug prohibition in Australia and to effectively regulate the quality and supply of drugs here.
A groundbreaking report was released last month on the future of drug policy in Australia. The report, Can Australia respond to drugs more effectively and safely? openly acknowledged the failure of Australia鈥檚 punitive drug policies and called for a steady path towards decriminalisation.
A to set up a safe injecting room in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond to reduce the number of fatal overdoses of drug users.
With the state coroner and other medical professionals supporting the push, Sex Party MP Fiona Patten has introduced a private member鈥檚 bill to set up a trial safe injecting room, which was debated in state parliament on February 22.