Nearly 20 health leaders have called on Victorian leaders to establish a second supervised injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD after “countless” overdoses and the deaths of 40 people.
In an open letter, major health bodies including the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association, and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Victoria, stated over a thousand heroin-related ambulance callouts were made from the CBD.
Then-Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews committed to setting up a second injecting room in the CBD in 2020 with a site near Bourke Street (the former Salvation Army Hub) selected, the first injecting room was located in the inner-city suburb of Richmond North in 2018 as part of a trial program.
The supervised injecting rooms provide a place for individuals to inject drugs—normally heroin—in a supervised health setting, according to the North Richmond Community Health website.
If an individual overdoses, medical staff are available to respond. Other services such as mental health support, wound care, and drug treatments are available.
“Overdose prevention is basic healthcare, and all people, regardless of whether they consume drugs, have a right to healthcare,” the health bodies wrote in their letter to the premier.
“We see fewer hospital presentations and ambulance callouts when people can access overdose prevention services.”
Former Victorian Police Commissioner Ken Lay delivered a report on drug patterns in the CBD to Mental Health Minister Gabrielle Williams at the end of June, which has yet to be released to the public.
“We’re still working through Ken Lay’s report. There’s lots of complexity to that, as I’m sure you'd appreciate,” Ms. Williams said.
“There is a lot of work for us to do to make sure that we get this right, and that is our primary concern, particularly when dealing with matters that are ultimately, for many in our community, matters of life and death,” she said.
A plan to locate the second injecting room near Queen Victoria Market was rejected by the City of Melbourne in 2020 before the government bought a building on Flinders Street the following year.
Now-former Premier Andrews said last week, “Finding a suitable location in the CBD is not easy” noting he was not confident a final location could be decided.
The Greens, however, have thrown their support behind the open letter saying for each day that passes without a decision, a person dies from an overdose.
The party has also called for Labor to open multiple injecting facilities statewide.
Rooms Need to Be Where Drug Users Are, AMA President Says
Meanwhile, a letter signatory, Australian Medical Association Victorian President Dr. Jill Tomlinson, said evidence from the 120 safe injecting facilities worldwide showed facilities need to be where the injecting is happening.“The CBD is currently acting as an unsupervised injecting service, with the highest number of ambulance deaths and callouts compared to any local government area. One person is dying per month on average,” Ms. Tomlinson said.
When asked why CBD drug users were not travelling to the Richmond injecting site, she said evidence showed people only travel a maximum of about two kilometres once they have secured drugs.
Further, she said a police and law enforcement approach to the problem has not been practical for the “addiction issue.”
Victoria’s police union has opposed a supervised drug injecting facility in Melbourne’s CBD, with Police Association of Victoria CEO Wayne Gatt saying they wanted to “get the first one right.”
“We’re torn between wanting safety for drug users and protection for the community,” Mr Gatt said. He said Richmond “shouldn’t be duplicated” in the CBD, and the location of the first injecting facility was the cause of ineffectiveness.
When speaking about the drug scene in the CBD in the 1990s, he said, “We could step back two decades, and that’s not worth going back to; it’s not what the city needs right now.”
Opposition Says No to Drug Injecting Room
Meanwhile, the Victorian Liberal Party said local traders, residents, and Melbourne’s lord mayor “categorically rejected” a second injecting room near the iconic DeGraves Street cafe strip.Mental Health Shadow Minister Emma Kealy said it was the wrong plan when too many problems plagued the first room in Richmond.
“Our kids should never be exposed to the horrors of illegal drug use, stumble across deceased bodies, or have to dodge dirty needles on their walk to primary school, but that’s exactly the dangers at first injecting room,” Ms. Kealy said.
The opposition health minister said after promises that the Richmond injecting room would stop public drug use and clear the streets of used needles, she said that crime, drug dealing, and erratic behaviour had “escalated at the centre next to the local primary school.”
“After nearly three years of financially-crippling lockdowns and restrictions, the last thing DeGraves Street traders need is the dangerous problems of injecting room tossed at their doorstep,” she said.
“Melbourne’s CBD desperately needs a plan to recover and rebuild.”
