Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Page: 3 Copyright: 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald Contact: http://www.smh.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441 Author: Andrew Clennell, State Political Editor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Kings+Cross Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) FOUR MORE YEARS FOR HEROIN CENTRE TRIAL THE heroin-injecting centre in Kings Cross will be allowed to remain open for four more years - but may be shut down if client visits decline by more than a quarter. The Health Minister, Reba Meagher, told Parliament yesterday she would introduce legislation to extend the trial of the centre until October 2011. It is the third extension for the trial - two of those extensions have come shortly after an election win. The injecting centre was set up by the former premier, Bob Carr, in 2001 in an attempt to halt drug use in public places and stop deaths by overdose. Ms Meagher later said the centre could not be made permanent because she received legal advice that if it was not regarded as a part-time medical trial, it could be challenged in the High Court using two United Nations anti-drug conventions that Australia had signed. "We have sought legal advice from numerous sources, mostly from the Crown Solicitor's [office]," Ms Meagher said. "It [extending the trial] is the safest way to continue the operation of the centre without exposing ourselves to perhaps quite costly and lengthy litigation." Ms Meagher's proposal passed through cabinet without opposition yesterday but three MPs - the member for Blacktown, Paul Gibson, the member for Mount Druitt, Richard Amery, and Greg Donnelly in the upper house - expressed reservations in caucus. In particular, the MPs questioned if the centre was working when only 11 per cent of people attending were being referred for drug treatment. However, caucus passed the proposal, meaning Labor MPs will not have a conscience vote on the legislation, virtually assuring its passage through both houses of parliament. The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, later said Liberal and National MPs would be allowed a conscience vote. He would not declare how he would vote. Unexpected in Ms Meagher's announcement was the provision that if the number of people attending the centre fell "below 75 per cent of current daily levels (208 clients a day), a formal review will be triggered into the economic viability and need for the centre". The idea came from the minister's office and is understood to be intended as a sign from the Government that it is serious about reducing drug use and wants to eventually shut the centre, once heroin use declines. The medical director of the centre, Ingrid Van Beek, and the licensing operator, the executive director of Uniting Care, Harry Herbert, welcomed the Government's decision to extend the centre yesterday. Dr Van Beek said lives had been saved by the centre, with more than 2100 drug overdoses occurring there without death or serious brain injury since its inception. "There's no doubt that if some of those cases had occurred in less safe [situations] that some of those cases would have resulted in death," Dr Van Beek said. Over six years, 10,000 addicts have used the centre - mostly for heroin - with about 6 per cent now using it for methamphetamine injection including ice. Ms Meagher said there was no consideration of establishing an injecting centre in any other part of Sydney, since Kings Cross, with its sex workers, had its own peculiar drug problems. One of the MPs who will vote against the bill is the former opposition leader Peter Debnam, who had said before the March 24 election that he would oppose it if he won office. Mr Debnam said yesterday: "I won't be supporting it. It's a bad idea, it's bad for the community and it should be closed." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake