Kings Cross Injecting Centre - Lets Educate.

[shal]

Hi All,

I'm a heroin addict from Sydney, Australia.

(Read my blog, www.youique.com/words)

Here is something I wanted to share with everyone because I myself have overdosed on heroin several times, luckily having a friend or companion close by to help me.

It's something I feel quiet passionate about and something I feel needs to voiced to all who might be able to relate and help if it becomes nessacery.

Approx. 5 Years ago in Australia, The Government allowed for our first supervised Injecting Centre to open in Kings Cross. This centre was designed for drug addicts to use and safely shoot up in a medically supervised environment, providing fresh and clean injecting equipment, helping to save 1000’s of lives from overdose and diseases, such as HIV & Hep C. It was also an enviroment that was safe from the authoritys, such as Police.

It’s a fantastic resource for IV drug users. I’ve used it many times and it’s fabulous. It provides you with a comfort of knowing you are in safe hands if something did go wrong which as we all know could happen ay anytime.

It's not just for heroin addicts but caters for any IV drug users, whether that be heroin, cocaine, morphine and pills like kapanol, oxycontin, etc etc, anyone who IV's and wants to be medically supervised and in a safe environment.

Clinical Research found the centre had supervised more than 214,400 visits since May 2001, managing 1262 drug overdoses without a fatality by December 2004. On average, the centre has 200 visits a day.

The bad news is that The NSW Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, has vowed to close the centre if he becomes premier. For anyone who is interested or cares about the IV drug using community in Australia, I suggest writing a letter to Peter Debnam in Canberra and voicing your protest, also including the advantages of having such a facility open to the public.

Peter Debnams contact details:

Suite 102, 332-342 Oxford Street
Bondi Junction 2022
Phone (02) 9369 3017
Fax (02) 9389 8050

People like Peter Debnam are uneducated and uncaring. He is more interested in succeeding in recieving additional votes then the understanding, educating, and supporting a very proven, worth while initiative that by statistics alone shows it has saved 1000’s of lives. Do you want someone like Peter Debnam being Premier? Someone who is willing to basically allow people to die on the streets to win a political election? What sort of human is he?

If the centre is closed down we will have literally 1000’s of drug users injecting on the streets and certainly 100’s of fatal overdoses and the increased risk of spreading deadily diseases such as Hep C, HIV and other blood borne infections.

Take a look at the following Sydney Morning Herald Story regarding the Kings Cross Injecting Centre Saving Lives. It would be a disaster to see this facility closed down.

Don’t let like wise people similar to ourselves die. Stop the Government & Politicians from deciding fate and playing God. They have no right to make such choices, especially when the figures show that we are saving so many lives. Lives that may sooner or later become reformed, redeemed. People who may bring so much value to our world. The person who dies today because the clinic has been shutdown, could be the exact same person who has the cure to cancer inside his head tomorrow. You just never know!

You can check out some more details in my blog - www.youique.com/words

thanks!
shals!

 

[aunty establishment]

Thank you for this

Guys, please read and consider the political ramifications of closing down the Kings Cross injecting rooms. I personally agree that this is a fantastic resource that has done *everything* to improve Kings Cross into the place it is today - a safer, cleaner, more reputable area. Go there yourselves, NSWers, and take a stroll.

I've been staying there for years when I visit Sydney and watched it transform. IMO (ae speaking, mod hat off) the only people who'd vote for this platform are those who are too scared to go and see for themselves. I take this as cowardice. Personal view - could well be wrong

 

[zaineaol.nu]

Well... I'm not a fan of heroin, or it's use.

But I do agree that closing down such a centre would be a hazard to society. Thinking outside the user circle, kids and other innocent, or not so innocent people are put at risk buy needle stick injuries and the transmission of disease.

Well Done Shal.

If at some time you decide to kick the habit, best of luck.

 

[hoptis]

Thanks for posting that

Here's the article you're referring to in your post.

Injecting centre saves lives
By Ruth Pollard Health Reporter
March 11, 2006

MORE than 100,000 episodes of public drug injection were prevented in the first four years of operation of the injecting centre in Kings Cross, and deaths and other harm from overdoses were significantly reduced.

Established five years ago to reduce crime in the local area and cut down on discarded needles and syringes, the State Government-funded Medically Supervised Injecting Centre has referred 3620 people for drug treatment and health and medical care, an interim evaluation report has found.

The National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research found the centre had supervised more than 214,400 visits since May 2001, managing 1262 drug overdoses without a fatality by December 2004.

On average, the centre has 200 visits a day, said its medical director, Ingrid van Beek.

"Close it, and tomorrow you will have 200 additional injectors on the street," she said.

"Instead, we know that these people are not engaging in risky behaviour: they are not going to overdose in the back lane and not be attended to."

The 1700 overdoses that occurred up to December 2005 were treated immediately, 20 to 30 minutes sooner than if they had occurred on the streets, Dr van Beek said.

"Some of the overdoses we have managed would have resulted in death, but every single one was treated quickly and appropriately, so there was no other morbidity associated with not getting oxygen to the brain, or any other adverse outcomes."

The controversial centre, still criticised by some, opened at the same time as the so-called heroin drought kicked in, making heroin harder to obtain and resulting in fewer overdoses in the local area and across the country.

The NSW Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, has vowed to close the centre if he becomes premier.

From Sydney Morning Herald

Naturally, as probably the most visible example of harm reduction practised in this country, injecting rooms are also the most vulnerable to attack by public figures and deserve our support.

As for people like Debnam and those who would vote for such a platform, a few minutes of listening to talkback radio in NSW is enough to seriously undermine one's faith in the human species.

There are so many people out there who simply don't even see drug users as human beings to begin with and politicians like Debnam know that, being obviously not morally encumbered by the possibility of riding to victory on the back of a few extra hundred junkie deaths each year.

 

[hoptis]

Injecting room would shut
June 27, 2006

THE Kings Cross heroin shooting gallery will be closed and drug addicts put on treatment programs if the Opposition wins the state election next March.

Instead of providing drug addicts with a taxpayer-funded injecting room, Opposition Leader Peter Debnam wants programs to help users become drug-free.

Under the Coalition's law and order policy out yesterday, Mr Debnam said "a better message" had to be sent to young people about drug use.

From Daily Telegraph

 

[mepat1111]

I am lost for words at the stupidity of the Peter Debnam, does he honestly think that putting more money into drug rehab programs is going to stop people overdosing, leaving needles on the street for kids to pick up, etc. etc.?

I am all for the extra money for drug rehabilitation, but it should not come from closing the injecting room.

I have never IVed, and I never plan to, but it truely saddens me that hundreds of people could die needlessly if this idiot wins the election.

 

[Prince Planet]

It's fascinating that in todays world of evidence based treatments for problematic drug use that politicians still want to dispute the facts and push their own private sensationalised views of the world. It's a great vote winner. If you force all of the individuals who access the kings cross clinic into rehabs, surprise surprise you end up with bad treatment retention rates, ie. most people drop out. Except of course the individuals who are ready and willing to make that change in their lives and want to be there.

We are fortunate in Australia that we have, officially, a harm reduction approach to dealing with drug issues. Although many politicians refuse to embrace this approach. "It's sending out the wrong message bla bla bla!!"

We target individuals who are at various stages of their drug use with harm reduction measures. In this case, if someone chooses to use intravenously thats their business and we attempt to encourage them to use safely and if they happen to be near kings cross ideally use the centre.

Rehab is not for everyone and its very expensive to justify precious tax payer dollars in forcing individuals into compulsory treatment. Outside of the cost it doesn't work for everyone.

We are fortunate to have enough years of experience with regard to drug issues to know what works and what doesn't. You can't make someone undergo forced treatment and I suppose I can't make stupid politicians see the obvious. me grinding my teeth with frustration!!!

 

[Tronica]

Please show your support for the Injecting Centre (and opposition to Peter Debnam) by completing this Daily Telegraph Poll

edit: it's a comments field rather than a poll.. but i'm sure there will be one of those too!

 

[hoptis]

1700 overdoses that didn't end in death
Date: July 8 2006

The Kings Cross injecting centre has been saving lives for five years, writes Ruth Pollard.

IT IS one of the few State Government programs devoted to caring for those living on the fringes of society rather than throwing them in jail.

Lauded as brave and pioneering by many and derided by others as giving tacit approval to illicit activities, the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre quietly celebrated its fifth year of operation eight weeks ago.

Such is the sensitivity surrounding its operation there were no obvious celebrations, no fanfare - just a quiet determination to continue its work in the face of growing political opposition amid a law-and-order auction leading up to next year's state election.

"If they close the centre it is going to go back to how it was - the mess in the street, the overdoses in the street, the death in the street will be a recurring nightmare," says Sally, who fought and beat a 17-year heroin habit.

One of the first drug users to register when the centre opened on May 6, 2001, she gradually moved from heroin to methadone, and from the streets to public housing.

In August she celebrates three years off methadone, and four years of sleeping indoors.

With assistance from staff at the injecting centre, Sally gathered the strength to move away from drugs when she discovered her partner of eight years had cancer.

"It didn't matter how many times I had overdosed and been brought back, it wasn't until I was confronted with my boyfriend's mortality that it made some sense to get straight."

In its five years of operation, the centre has registered 8912 injecting drug users, many of whom had not previously had any recent contact with health services. Nearly 310,000 episodes of injecting have occurred at the centre, now running at about 220 a day - episodes that would otherwise have happened in parks, toilets or back lanes, in public view and without medical support if an overdose occurs.

A long-time Kings Cross resident, Margaret Harvie, said the centre had made a huge difference to those who live and work in the area.

"The injecting centre has significantly improved things - you do not have people overdosing; there are not ambulances screaming around the streets."

Ms Harvie dismissed the idea that the centre is a honeypot for dealers and users.

People have been hanging around Kings Cross for years, she says, attracted by the nightclubs and the prostitution rather than the injecting centre.

But the Liberal leader, Peter Debnam, said he would close the centre if elected premier next year - dumping his predecessor John Brogden's policy of supporting the centre.

His health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, who voted against the centre's trial, has been asked to develop the Opposition's drug policy.

"If you can clearly demonstrate that it is a success in helping people move on to rehabilitation, then good; if it is [money] that could have been spent allowing people to go to treatment services … that is not a good use of scarce resources," she said.

Funded by the confiscated proceeds of crime - not with taxpayers' money as the Opposition claims - the centre was born out of the 1999 drug summit at State Parliament.

Harry Herbert is the executive director of Uniting Care and the licensing operator of the injecting centre, which runs on a yearly budget of $2.5 million.

"The board feels as strongly now as it did back in 1999 when the original decision was taken - it is serving a very important social purpose and it is appropriate for a church body to be involved."

The medical director of the centre, Ingrid van Beek, is urging politicians to reserve judgement until the final evaluation is released in mid-2007. The centre has treated 1752 overdoses on site without a fatality, 91 per cent of them associated with heroin and other opioids, she said.

Describing it as a "gateway" for drug users to enter treatment and rehabilitation programs, she said the centre had referred users to programs on 5380 occasions: "We have a brokerage arrangement in place where we can fast-track people onto treatment programs and support them for the first three months."

There is no evidence the centre is contributing to crime in the area, or has attracted more drug dealers, said Mark Murdoch, the Kings Cross Local Area Commander for the police.

"There is nothing to indicate that the centre is anything but good for the area.

"Police support Government initiatives such as the [injecting centre] and police are there to enforce the law, which is evidenced by Kings Cross Local Area Command attaining the highest rates of drug detections in the state."

Government support for the injecting centre appears strong. The trial was just one part of the Government's drug policy, which encompassed prevention, education, treatment and law enforcement, said the acting Minister for Health, Frank Sartor. "The independent evaluations have given us evidence that the centre has had a positive impact."

From Sydney Morning Herald

 

[Prince Planet]

"It's the misinformation that makes us mad!"



CORRECTION OF MISINFORMATION COMMUNICATED ABOUT

THE MEDICALLY SUPERVISED INJECTING CENTRE IN KINGS CROSS, ON 2GB RADIO BY MAJOR BRIAN WATTERS – FORMER CHAIR OF

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DRUGS (ANCD)





Please see the following transcript of Major Watters’ interview with 2GB’s Jason Morrison on Wednesday July 12, 2006 followed by the correct information.





Major Watters: “Hi Jason; glad you’re a voice of commonsense in this thing.



Today they had this big self-congratulatory get together in Parliament House, these people. Interesting that people like me weren’t invited – they were all the stooges together, slapping each other on the back to say how good this is”.



Fact: UnitingCare (the arm of the Uniting Church of Australia that holds the license to operate the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) hosted a symposium at NSW Parliament House on 12 July to report back on its first 5 years of operation. The current Chair of the ANCD was invited along with the other members of the ANCD and all state politicians in NSW - who could hardly be described as “stooges” for the MSIC.





Major Watters: It’s the misinformation that makes me mad. They’re all on about the drops in deaths but the fact is that’s a result of the heroin drought, which was a result of Federal Government policy. There’s been a dramatic drop in deaths, quite irrespective of the injecting room.



In 2000 - 24 people died in Cabramatta. In the next 6 months that dropped to five. At the same time in Kings X it went from 13 to 24 - the number of deaths doubled after the room opened”.



Fact: There were approximately 50 heroin-related deaths per annum in the Kings Cross area in the late 1990s, prior to the establishment of the MSIC in May 2001. In the MSIC’s first 18 months of operation this decreased to 11 deaths per annum. [MSIC Evaluation Committee (2003) Final Report].





Major Watters: “In Cabramatta the number of needles dispensed fell from 194,000 to 46,000. It used to be the drug capital of Australia. Kings Cross? We can’t get the figures. They won’t give them to us.



Fact: There has been a 40% reduction in the number of needle syringes dispensed through the various needle syringe programs in Kings Cross (including those used at the MSIC), since 2000. The reduction in needle syringes dispensed in Kings Cross has exceeded that of the rest of NSW where it decreased by 30%. [Medical Director’s Report. Face-Up Newsletter, July 2006]





Major Watters: “Ambulance callouts – Cabramatta dropped 385 to 30. Kings Cross – for the same period they went up to 223.”



Fact: In 1999 there were 677 ambulance callouts in Kings Cross compared to104 ambulance callouts to heroin-related overdoses in 2004 [source: NSW Ambulance Service] representing an 84% decrease. Ambulance call outs to heroin-related overdoses in NSW decreased approximately 63% post-heroin shortage. [Degenhardt, L., Conroy, E., Gilmour, S., Hall, W. The effect of a reduction in heroin supply on fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses in New South Wales, Australia. MJA 2005; 182 (1): 20-23].



The MSIC acknowledges the major contribution of the national heroin shortage to this decrease in ambulance callouts to heroin-related overdoses, however posits that the successful treatment of some 1600 overdose cases on-site at the MSIC during its first 5 years, is likely to have contributed to this greater decrease in callouts to overdose cases in the Kings Cross compared to the rest of NSW. [Medical Director’s Report. Face-Up Newsletter, July 2006]

 

[hoptis]

Salvo worker renews call for injecting room
September 01, 2006 12:00am

VICTORIA should follow Sydney's lead and introduce a supervised drug injecting centre, a Salvation Army worker says.

Salvation Army program worker Sally Finn pointed to the success of the supervised injecting room, which opened five years ago in Kings Cross.

All 1400 people who overdosed on the Kings Cross premises in its first four years had been resuscitated, Ms Finn said.

"I think it's very much needed," she said.

Ms Finn was speaking at St Kilda for Overdose Day, which she founded six years ago to recognise the suffering caused by drug overdose. Between 1988 and 2004, 8661 people in Australia died from heroin overdose.

While the rate of overdoses had since declined, it was still vital to acknowledge those who had lost their lives or suffered permanent injury, Ms Finn said.

Helen Barnacle, who was jailed for eight years for drug use and has lost many friends to drugs, said it was difficult to lose the tag of drug user.

"It's like people only see a part of you and they become blind to the strengths you have," Ms Barnacle said.

From Herald Sun

With the Labor government in Victoria opposed to injecting rooms and drop in overdose deaths over the last few years, it's unlikely we'd see an injecting room open up here, but it doesn't hurt to publicise their usefulness anyway.

 

[Portillo]

Its a wonderful place.

 

[missing_one]

Imagine that, 1400 people waking up and having the realisation they had life again... all in one spot ... how could you destroy it, it is a sacred spot so many poeple...

 

[person]

The NZ govt seriously needs a drop in centre for us needle users too! its starting to look tacky with carloads outside the needle exchange having a taste as soon as they get there new kit..I too have been to the injecting centre when I fly over and visit, not as of late though.. Best of luck!@! it is a great resource. The Govt here needs to drop there denial, cos if they havent noticed like I have. There are now shitloads of meth/ice IV users. After banning the glass pipe (well still available as an 'incense holder lol).....

 

[hoptis]

Injecting room fails drug users
Exclusive by Kelvin Bissett, Investigations Editor
April 23, 2007 12:00

LESS than 1 per cent of all visits by drug users to the legal injecting room at Kings Cross now result in referrals to get treatment – the lowest since the controversial centre began operating.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal there were 211 referrals to detox and rehabilitation by the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in the three months to October 2006.

The figures, in documents released under Freedom of Information, appear to confirm the views of critics the facility does not encourage clients to get clean.

The 211 referrals were less than 1 per cent of the 20,783 visits. In the previous three months up to July, there were 173 referrals for 19,780 visits.

The figures prompted MSIC director Ingrid Van Beek to concede yesterday that referrals to rehabilitation were not the main priority of the injecting room, at least not in the short term.

"The primary aim of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre is to keep injecting drug users alive and to thereby also extend to them a greater opportunity to become rehabilitated," she said.

These figures are a major decline in percentage terms on the first years of the centre's operation.

In 2001 where there were 228 referrals for 2914 visits, a rate closer to 10 per cent.

According to Dr Van Beek, drug users attend the MSIC to inject drugs in relative safety and "are not necessarily at the stage of being able or willing to cease their use".

Rather than confront drug users with a need for rehabilitation regularly, she said MSIC staff use their "well-honed intuitive skills" to identify the best moments to promote drug treatment.

She said her most recent figures showed the figures has risen again slightly to 229 in the January 2007 quarter.

An average of 855 people a month are using the facility, meaning they make about 11 visits each month.

The falling number of referrals came as no surprise to the Salvation Army, one of the biggest providers of drug treatment places in NSW.

Salvation Army recovery programs manager Gerard Byrne said last night that in the five years the centre had been operating, about five users had been referred to the Salvo's treatment centres.

"When the centre started were expecting large numbers of referrals," Mr Byrne said.

"We thought it would an opportunity to interface directly with IV drug users so they could get help. But that hasn't translated to referrals," he said.

A spokesman for another major treatment centre, We Help Ourselves, said his clients usually came from the centre via a separate detox facility.

The centre costs $2.5 million a year to run, funded by confiscated crime proceeds.

The documents, quarterly reports on centre operations submitted to NSW Health, also revealed that pharmaceutical opioids were the most commonly injected substance in the centre for much of last year.

These opioids, morphine and oxycodone, are dispensed on prescription in pill form for pain relief.

But due to the heroin drought, heroin addicts are increasing obtaining these drugs and liquifying them to shoot up.

About 38 per cent of injections involved pharmaceutical opioids in the three months to October and 40 per cent in previous quarter. In contrast, heroin was injected on 37 per cent and 32 per cent of occasions respectively.

Daily Telegraph

 

[ilikeacid]

"The primary aim of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre is to keep injecting drug users alive and to thereby also extend to them a greater opportunity to become rehabilitated," she said.

I have a major problem with this title: Injecting room fails drug users. How has the supervised injecting facility failed users?! The center is obviously doing its job well since no one has died in their care! I would say the oppositie: Injecting rooms save users!

Too bad 'Kelvin Bissett, Investigations Editor' cant see this obvious fact 8)

 

[hoptis]

I have a major problem with this title: Injecting room fails drug users. How has the supervised injecting facility failed users?!

To quote the Telegraph

The figures, in documents released under Freedom of Information, appear to confirm the views of critics the facility does not encourage clients to get clean.

 

[shal]

Great news that Peter Debnam didnt win!

The Injecting Centre is fantastic. I use it daily and it's amazing. The staff are helpful and it does save lives. I watch it everyday, people overdosing and these wonderful people helping them with oxygen, etc.

I'm glad it's not being closed down!

shals!

 

[ilikeacid]

The figures, in documents released under Freedom of Information, appear to confirm the views of critics the facility does not encourage clients to get clean.

I dont see this as a failure.. Isn't the whole idea about saving lives by protecting against death from overdose?..

just my 2c

 

[ayjay]

^The telegraph, like many, just doesn't understand harm reduction, either as a philosophy or as a strategy. The goal is to reduce harm - this has been ably achieved.