Pubdate: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 Source: Canberra Times (Australia) Contact: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ Author: Liz Armitage DRUGS ROOM BACKED - STANHOPE Labor Leader Jon Stanhope, after receiving backing from key organisations, will look to the Carr Government to establish links between safe-injecting rooms in NSW and the ACT. Mr Stanhope said yesterday that he had received about 20 letters from ACT organisations lending cautious support for legislation to establish a safe-injecting room. He had spoken to the NSW Government about the potential for close consultation with NSW but was yet to put it in writing. Mr Stanhope has sought to override the role of Health Minister Michael Moore in driving the agenda for the project. He said a safe-injecting room would be established in the ACT only when Labor was satisfied legal ramifications and all other issues had been resolved. Mr Moore said he had already held discussions with NSW Health Minister Craig Knowles and the Sisters of Charity, who will run the safe-injecting room in Sydney. ' Of course we will try and work with NSW as closely as we can,' Mr Moore said. ' Everything that Jon Stanhope is doing has already been done by the Government. ' We have consulted widely with a range of health professionals, government and non-government agencies, and individuals within the community.' Mr Moore said Mr Stanhope's legislation was unnecessary, and he could have produced the same results by way of administrative action. But Mr Stanhope is determined to take a legislative approach. He said Labor hoped to introduce legislation - to ensure the room would be run as a genuine trial with proper evaluation - in the Assembly during the October sittings. Mr Moore has long been pushing for a safe-injecting room in the ACT but he will not proceed without Assembly support. Mr Stanhope lent Labor's conditional support to the project last month. ' I will be writing to every state and territory leader to let them know what we are doing here in the ACT,' he said yesterday. ' It is only sensible that we let them know the approach we are adopting and to seek their moral and financial support.' - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea