Pubdate: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: http//www.theaustralian.com.au/ Author: Misha Schubert CALL TO LET PEOPLE RULE ON HEROIN TRIAL POLITICIANS should defer to local communities over whether to allow trials of heroin injecting room in Victoria, the Australian Drug Foundation said yesterday.Geoff Munro, who heads the foundation's Youth Drug Studies Centre, said MPs who voted against the trial of injecting facilities were denying local communities the right to choose how they tackled the issue. "Ultimately, politicians should allow the communities in the most drug-affected areas to decide," he said. "It is they who have to cope with the drug-use on their streets and the worst effects. "By voting yes to the trial, politicians are merely enabling communities to make the final decision." But the foundation the nation's leading drug research and education agency said politicians should take their time in deciding a stance on the controversial issue. "Lots of MPs are rushing to judgment and it's way too early for them to be forming a view." Mr Munro said. The call for community consultation came after the Bracks Government's plan to set up five supervised injecting rooms in Melbourne appeared doomed this week when key Independent and Opposition MPs, on whose support the enabling legislation depends, expressed reservations about the plan. Mr Munro's plea for patience was backed by David Penington, chairman of the Bracks Government's Drugs Policy Advisory Committee, who said concerns expressed by the state Liberal and National Party leaders this week were premature. "Look, a lot of this is silly hype whipped up by journalists", Professor Penington said. "The debate has a long way to go and people have yet to consider the facts in any detail. Most MPs don't even have the full (advisory committee) report yet." Premier Steve Bracks rejected a call from National Party leader Peter Ryan for his Government to shelve the experiment until the results of a similar trial in Sydney become clear. "We don't want to stand by and watch people die," Mr Bracks said. A hundred Victorians had died from heroin overdoses already this year a toll that demanded action, he said. Mr Munro said Victoria must have its own trial, rather than looking to the NSW experiment, because there were many differences between the two capitals. "Victoria now has the highest rate of heroin deaths, and we need to test what works in our city and its sub-cultures." He said critics of the injecting room trials had so far failed to suggest any alternative strategies to save lives and address the public health issues of discarded syringes and people using drugs on the streets. "Not trying this will just ensure the death toll from heroin continues to escalate," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart