NEWS: ? 09 Jul 03: Report: Australia's first heroin injecting room is saving lives

NEWS report on tv tonight (sorry sketchy details, only overheard)

A report on Australia's first heroin injecting room shows that it is saving lives... 85 people revived with narcan... many thousands of trouble-free injections have been through. Something about average patron (client? injector?) is male 35(i think)yo.

That's about all I could grab but I was impressed at the results, more details if I can find them in the press tomorrow.

Bigtrancer

i saw it too and read it somewhere (sorry can't remember) could maybe have even been on this site?). it pissed me off though to see john howard still firmly against injecting rooms considering it does way more good than harm.

En_warp said:

it pissed me off though to see john howard still firmly against injecting rooms considering it does way more good than harm.

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Do we expect anything else from Little Johnny? He's still trapped in the 1950s.

Anyways good to hear about the good work the injecting room is doing.

Minimising harm is the single most important (and realistic) objective for any drug support organisation.

Why does providing people with sensible, non-judgmental information or being there to give them a shot of Naloxone when they OD get seen as perpetuating drug abuse?!

Meanwhile, the rich are still out on their coke benders. The hypocrisy!

Anyway blah blah, I know, heard it all before.

I heard this on the radio... There was something else mentioned as well about a number of people having been rehabilitated through help from the rooms...

I wish politicians around the country would just realise people are going to do it anyway, and that these rooms will do more good than harm...

carlin said:

Meanwhile, the rich are still out on their coke benders. The hypocrisy!

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Well the arguement could be that when they're on their coke benders they don't require expensive medical attention, constant supervision and the need to be revived with Narcan at the tax payers' expense.

Nor are those coke users racking up lines in expensive tax payer paid surrounds....

Heroin users don't NEED expensive medical attention, constant supervision or to be revived with Narcan when they overdose... but if they don't get it they might easily die by accident. In the interest of harm reduction these things are provided by the government (in extremely few instances worldwide) to stop people dying due to making silly slip-ups with their doses (or a new batch of gear that was overly strong etc.), and to educate people about the dangers associated with risky behaviour and help them reduce the risks.

By way of analogy, people don't need speed limits or seat belts to drive a car either, but they exist (worldwide) in an attempt to reduce the harm caused by a driver who accidentally makes a silly mistake. Seat belts and speed limits don't make it 'safe' to drive very very fast though, because beyond a certain level of stupidity or lack of control, these safeguards fail.

I suppose the difference is that one is illegal, currently, and the other is not. Granted, people don't need to inject heroin to get to work, and there's no public heroin transport to get you by when you can't inject because your needle is at the garage, but I think you'll understand this analogy is over now hehe.

Anyway, there are sort-of safe rooms for having ecstasy pills in... but since they're not government sponsored the health precautions are often barely paid lip service! They often have far too high temperatures, way too loud ambient noise levels, and the drinks are far too high priced... but at least people can take their drugs off the streets, and avoid sticking in under the noses of the society that hates it. Too bad getting a decent nod going makes it so hard to dance...

BigTrancer

Just wondering has any bluelighter used or would use an injecting room? Maybe I should start a thread.