Victorian Parliament can save lives by trialling safe injecting room

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This was published 6 years ago

Victorian Parliament can save lives by trialling safe injecting room

Updated

The Victorian Parliament can this week save lives by endorsing a trial of a safe injecting room in Richmond, the focus of Melbourne's illicit narcotics market.

Dozens of people have fatally overdosed on heroin in the gutters, laneways and front gardens of Richmond. According to reports, not a single person has ever died in a safe-injecting space anywhere in the world. Yet the Victorian Labor government and Coalition opposition ignore growing calls to expedite something that not only prevents death, but puts addicts on a pathway to recovery.

The injecting room at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross, where there are waste bins for used equipment and a resuscitation room.

The injecting room at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross, where there are waste bins for used equipment and a resuscitation room.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Experts in addiction and public health want a trial. Although some citizens are concerned by a safe injecting room, more and more residents and business owners, distressed by seeing ill and dead people and by being burgled, support a trial. Academic studies and official inquiries recommend a trial. The Coroner's Court wants one.

And now the Police Association, which represents the state's 20,000 law enforcers, is adding its voice. The association, mindful of its delicate situation, is phrasing its support diplomatically and without transgressing the law, saying police would not stand in the way of a trial of something that saves lives and is fostering better health around the world.

For more than the past decade, a medically supervised injecting centre has operated safely and with community and political support in inner Sydney's Kings Cross. Countless lives have been saved and as many as three in four of the people who use it have accepted referrals to health experts to help them deal with the causes of their addiction.

Our law enforcers' backing for a trial is informed by dreadful experience. They stress they are not endorsing crime, but seeking to minimise harm by treating addiction as a health problem.

The Andrews government is believed to be concerned the community would not have the appetite for the simultaneous contemplation of assisted dying, legislation for which is also before Parliament, and of a safe injecting room. The government is underestimating the community, which, after all, is constantly digesting and initiating debate and change. The opposition claims a trial would be tantamount to condoning the use of illicit substances. Rather, this is all about minimising harm. Substance use is dangerous, and addiction a terrible burden for individuals and society.

Upper house MP Fiona Patten, whose Sex Party has changed its name to the Reason Party, has introduced a bill for a trial. Given the widespread community support, expert counsel and abundant proof, it would be neither reasonable nor rational to continue to oppose a trial. But it would be unconscionable.

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