Pubdate: Sun, 15 Feb 2015
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: 2015 Herald and Weekly Times
Contact: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/letter
Website: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/187
Author: Andrew Jefferson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

INNER CITY ZOMBIE TOWN

Shooting Gallery Not the Answer

A NEW push to set up a legal heroin-shooting gallery in one of 
Melbourne's most drug-affected suburbs - dubbed "zombie town" - has 
angered traders and residents.

They are tired of junkies littering Richmond's streets with discarded syringes.

But Yarra Council, the Yarra Drug and Health Forum, the Greens, the 
Australian Sex Party, and the Australian Medical Association are keen 
for the State Government to follow NSW's lead by sanctioning a 
six-month trial of a supervised injecting room.

Local police fear the arrival of the state's first injecting room 
could attract more dealers to Richmond, keen to feed the habit of 
desperate addicts, leading to an increase in crime.

They say more than 60 per-cent of crooks caught there, including drug 
dealers, come from outside Richmond.

"They deal, use and steal," said Inspector Bernie Edwards of the 
Yarra division.

Richmond Asian Business Association spokesman Meca Ho said Victoria 
St traders were against the injecting room, saying addicts were 
already scaring away customers. "It's getting worse, not better," he 
said. "I liken them to zombies, it's like zombie town." "People are 
too scared to walk down Victoria St because they don't feel safe - we 
don't need a shop attracting more," Mr Ho said. Richmond resident 
Jackson Ly was also not impressed. "An injecting room will just 
encourage more drug use, not less," he said.

With drug dealing and illicit use rife around the Richmond Housing 
Estate, one Yarra councillor fears the area is starting to resemble 
crime-ridden parts of Los Angeles.

The Sunday Herald Sun visited the estate and photographed druggies 
injecting heroin just metres from kids' playgrounds and a primary 
school. Users in drug-induced states were seen aggressively menacing 
pedestrians, while two addicts brazenly shot-up in a multi-storey carpark.

Some continue to dump used syringes in streets and laneways, posing a 
particular health risk to young children.

Cr Stephen Jolly said residents in Richmond and Abbotsford often felt 
unsafe witnessing drug-related behaviour or stumbling across 
discarded syringes.

"We need to find a solution because the illegal drug industry is 
making life intolerable for residents," he said.

"We're living in Melbourne, not South Central LA, and it's time to 
look at a different approach. If a safe injecting room helps us to 
move drug use off the streets, I think residents would support that move.

"I call on the new government to allow council to trial such a facility."

Fitzroy-based police officer Sen-Sgt Kelvin Gale said he had some 
concerns about supervised injecting rooms.

"One of the big problems is drugs cost money," he said.

"You're going to be putting more drug traffickers closer to that 
facility so potentially it might bring more crime in.

"There might be $100,000 worth of drugs going through that front door 
every day. I'm tipping that money to buy the drugs didn't come from 
Centrelink, it's coming out of people's houses - their flatscreen TVs 
and jewellery."

Greens Melbourne MP Adam Bandt said one Richmond resident told him 
they came home to find someone passed out after injecting in their 
front yard. "People are finding syringes in sandpits, yards and 
laneways and they're sick of it," he said.

AMA Victoria vice president Dr Gary Speck said heroin contributed to 
the deaths of 132 Victorians in 2013.

"Access to sterile needles does not result in an increase in the 
number of people using heroin, rather it reduces the chance of users 
contracting viruses such as hepatitis C or HIV," he said.

"It allows drug users to be helped. It is time to bring Victoria's 
approach into the 21st century."

Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said the State Government did not 
support supervised injecting rooms.

"Harm minimisation and evidence-based responses to drug use like 
needle and syringe programs, pharmacotherapies, as well as treatment 
and support services, are our focus," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom