Drug fight needs injection of reality

Any rational debate about safe drug-injecting rooms should weigh these questions. Would lives be saved? Would it improve users' health and chances of rehabilitation? Would it improve neighbourhood amenity? Or would the facility serve as a ''honeypot'' that increased local drug trade? Today, we know the answers from trials such as the supervised injecting clinic in Sydney's Kings Cross. On all measures it has been a success. The evidence is in and the Yarra City Council has responded by voting 6-1 for a trial in Richmond's Victoria Street.
Regrettably, the plan, which needs legislative approval, is unlikely to proceed. The state government won't have a bar of it. ''I don't support the normalisation of any of this sort of behaviour,'' Premier Ted Baillieu said. The state won't be ''sending the wrong message''. What message is that and to whom? As The Age observed of this debate a decade ago, ''Hard drugs are bad. The law says so. Society agrees.'' Drug users and addicts are oblivious to ''messages'' of normalisation or disapproval. In any case, Victoria runs needle exchanges for the same public health reasons as apply to injecting rooms.
Security cameras and police operations push such problems on to other streets or, worse, deeper into laneways, yards, doorways and stairwells of residential areas. Last year, the Burnet Institute found two-thirds of drug injectors in Melbourne last did so in such places, increasing concerns about residents' well-being and safety. The point is that safe injecting facilities protect both users and local residents.
@'The Age'