Pubdate: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd Contact: http://www.theage.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5 Author: Krystyna Pollard Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) FORUM TOLD DRUG INJECTING ROOM SAVING LIVES SYDNEY -- Every single one of the 80 to 90 addicts who have collapsed in Sydney's drug injecting room after shooting up have been saved, a forum was told tonight. Clinical services manager of the Kings Cross Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, Colette McGarth (McGarth), told a public forum on drug treatment programs at Potts Point in inner-Sydney that not one life has been lost since the 18-month trial of the injecting room started in May. And other speakers at the forum said there had been a noticeable drop in addicts shooting up in public and tossing used needles into the streets since the centre started operating. Director of alcohol and drug services at St Vincents Hospital, Dr Alex Wodak, who also spoke at the forum, said the general consensus on the centre was that it was going well. But a formal evaluation of the centre is only one-third of the way through and full results would not be available for 12 months, he said. "Colette McGarth did run through the results they've got to date and ... they're certainly attracting a lot of visits to the centre," Dr Wodak said. "Something like 80 or 90 people have collapsed following taking a drug (at the centre) and 100 per cent of those people have been revived, there have been no deaths. "The general impression is that it's going well. "Some of the other speakers (at the forum) commented that there's less obvious drug injecting in public places in this neighbourhood, and there's less discarding of used injecting equipment. "I think it's encouraging but frankly I wouldn't have expected anything less than that. "Running a successful injecting room is not nearly as difficult as getting one started in the first place." Although the issue was not raised tonight, Dr Wodak said opposition to the injecting room had "pretty well disappeared" since it opened. Dr Wodak said those who attended the forum were mainly concerned about crime, neighbourhood amenity and health issues of drug users. He told those present more funding should be put toward health and social services to combat the drug problem, rather than continuing to treat it as a law and order issue. "The fundamental mistake we've made in my view over the last few decades has been to define these issues as if it was a criminal justice problem, fund the law enforcement side very generously and fund the health and social services that go towards this problem so begrudgingly," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth