Australian
Capitol
Territory
Drug
Strategy
Stresses
Harm
Reduction,
Calls
for
Safe-Injection
Rooms
10/8/99
Peter Watney for DRCNet, [email protected] The Canberra Times reported on 30th September, 1999 the launch of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government's long-awaited drug strategy, which clears the way for injection-room legislation to be debated in the state Assembly in its October sitting. Safe injection rooms, sometimes called "tolerance rooms" or "T-rooms," offer injecting drug users clean needles, a safe place to use drugs, and access to treatment and health care. They have been used successfully in Europe as a means of taking drug use off the streets and improving users' health. ACT Health Minister Michael Moore said last week that if the bill passed this sitting, as he hoped it would, an injecting room could be operating by the end of the year. That would make the ACT the second state to announce its intention to open such a facility, after the New South Wales government approved a plan to establish one in Sidney later this year. The three-year strategy, "From Harm to Hope," differs from previous plans by looking at drug use and abuse in the context of all areas of government, housing, law and order, education and environment, as well as health. The safe-injecting facility would be run as a scientific trial and would include a supervised environment for injecting and disposing of equipment. Drug users who visit the facility would be offered links to rehabilitation, detoxification and counseling services. The ACT government has not given up hope of conducting a heroin maintenance trial, and its "feasibility" is still open despite repeated setbacks this year, including Prime Minister John Howard's firm opposition to the plan. The full text of "From Harm to Hope" is available online at http://www.health.act.gov.au/new.html.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
