No quick fix for shooting gallery

THE drug minimisation lobby which recently attempted to introduce young school pupils to "safe" methods of using dangerous illicit drugs is now trying to pressure the NSW Government into legitimising its Kings Cross shooting gallery and making it a permanent fixture.

In a highly publicised stunt, medical director of the shooting gallery Dr Ingrid van Beek announced her resignation yesterday via the medium of the once-august pages of that facilitator of inner-urban deviancy, The Sydney Morning Herald. Bemoaning the "politicisation" of the harm minimisation policies championed by the shooting gallery's staff and supporters, notably the Uniting Church, Dr van Beek said she resigned in frustration at the NSW Government's failure to move the shooting gallery from a trial basis to one of permanency. Curiously, the Uniting Church, which has been paid to operate the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) seems not to share her sense of frustration. It quietly paid about $7.1 million for 66 Darlinghurst Rd - the building occupied by the shooting gallery - seven months ago and settled in double-quick time. The price seems to be a record for the area which has had a decline in property sales and prices seriously affected because of the presence of the junkies attracted to the shooting gallery. As one local told me yesterday: "Prices here are badly affected. One nearby property around the $5.5 million mark has been to auction twice and failed to sell because of the junkies who hang out for drugs near here." The same person, a strong supporter of the Cross, said other areas were booming with two new banks and a Hungry Jacks franchise all being renovated. The Uniting Church has reaped millions from State Government for operating the shooting gallery and residents fear they may never be able to shift the centre now that the church has bought the building. The Reverend Harry Herbert, executive director of Uniting Care, the licensed operator of the centre, also criticised the Government's refusal to move the centre from its trial phase. To do so, however, would put the NSW Government in breach of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) protocols on drugs, and the Government shows no sign of shifting its position. To her enormous credit, the much-criticised Health Minister Reba Meagher has given a commitment that the shooting gallery would only be allowed to continue on a trial basis, which permits it to exploit a loophole in the UN's drug policy and keep operating. Mr Herbert, in keeping with his political views, not unnaturally blames former Prime Minister John Howard for the continuing political opposition to the shooting gallery. "Now that he's gone, this is not a big political issue any longer," he said. The outcry that erupted when The Daily Telegraph recently revealed the attempt by the harm minimisationists to introduce their policies into schools should have alerted him to the reality that the community is fed up with the pro-drug propaganda he and the shooting gallery encourage. The shooting gallery's own reports would indicate that new drug users make up the majority of attendees and it would seem that they make just one visit to receive some instruction in injecting techniques. As Dr van Beek has acknowledged: "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. However, by virtue of this fact, the MSIC's interventions tend to be earlier in the course of individuals' addictions, which is a key factor in successful rehabilitation." It is plain, however, from the MSIC's own figures that the number of junkies referred to relevant drug treatment and rehabilitation services remains tiny, and such referrals were 18 times more likely to be received by individuals who had attended the MSIC on more than 10 occasions. Dr van Beek has solemnly warned against requiring staff to push drug treatment referrals "each and every time" a person attends as "continuous promotion of drug treatment could desensitise people to the message and even worse, be a deterrent to drug users attending the MSIC to inject drugs". Using her convoluted logic, this would result in fewer attendees, fewer referrals and therefore (fewer) successful rehabilitations. Others might think that more referrals would mean more take-up of rehabilitation, but, according to Dr van Beek, this would be wrong. Dr van Beek claims that the shooting gallery has not created a "honey pot" but even to a casual observer, let alone anyone interested in the local real estate, the number of junkies - and bear in mind that these are largely new users - jostling in the neighbourhood of Kings Cross railway station and the centre would belie that view. Taxpayers should be aware that their Government paid nearly $30 million since 2001 to keep the shooting gallery open. When they see junkies collapsed in the streets and doorways around the Cross, indeed, even in the backdoor entrance to the MSIC, they might wonder what they are paying for. Dr van Beek may no longer be there to reassure them that the money is well spent helping addicts inject more safely but the Reverend Harry Herbert certainly will until the NSW Government faces up to the fact that it should send an independent investigator to look at the books and conduct a proper evaluation of this facility. Leaving it in the hands of the committed is the wrong way to go.