Drug researchers call for more safe injecting rooms across Victoria

Victorians will go to the election not knowing where the city’s next injecting room will be after the Premier conceded a key report was unlikely to be finished.

A consortium of drug researchers has piled pressure on the state government to build several more safe injecting rooms across Victoria.

But Victorians look set to head to the polls not knowing where the city’s second controversial injecting room will be.

The Premier on Tuesday conceded it was “unlikely” that his government would decide on the site before November 26.

Former top cop Ken Lay is yet to hand down his review into potential locations for another medically supervised injecting room, despite the state government having already bought the former Yooralla facility off Flinders St.

Mr Lay’s highly anticipated report was expected to be finished in 2021 but has been significantly delayed.

It is the first time the Premier has acknowledged the report won’t be finished ahead of the election.

A man blatantly injects drugs on a streets in Richmond. Picture: Jason Edwards

The man collected a needle from the safe injecting room in Richmond. Picture: Jason Edwards

“I think that’s unlikely, principally because Ken Lay is not finished his work,” he said.

“I’m not certain when that work will be finished. “The work isn’t done. When the work is done, it will be released.”

It comes as the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, funded by the federal government, pushed for even more facilities across Melbourne’s suburbs.

The Burnet Institute’s Paul Dietze, a co-author of the NDARC report, said not only should safe injecting rooms be built in the CBD, but there should also be rooms in Footscray, St Kilda and Frankston.

It found a need for “the ­expansion of supervised ­injecting facilities to other areas of Melbourne”.

It comes as more than a third of drug users who did not use Richmond’s safe injecting room in 2021 said they might do so if it were not so far away.

Flinders St traders are furious a new safe injecting facility may be built nearby. Picture: Mark Stewart

Professor Dietze said there were “multiple” injecting rooms in cities around the world with ­dispersed drug markets like Melbourne’s.

“Ideally you would place facilities like these where the harms are occurring and where the people are going to be able to use them,” he said.

“It’s not just about inner suburbs; Richmond is one place with a very active street-based drug market.

“Footscray has traditionally had one, too, and some of the outer suburbs as well, such as Frankston has … drug-related harm for years.”

Professor Dietze added St Kilda was a unique case where “there’s a lot of drug use associated with street-based sex work” so it “could be a ­location worth exploring”.

Residents and local traders in Richmond and Melbourne’s CBD slammed the NDARC report, saying more injecting rooms would only increase crime and anti-social behaviour.

A person slumped outside Richmond’s safe injecting room. Picture: Jason Edwards

Johnny Sandish, managing director at Xpressomondo cafe in Degraves St: “I don’t support these findings at all, look at what’s happened in Richmond?”

“There is so much crime and public injecting. We are so scared of losing tourists and customers,” he said.

In Richmond, drug users openly inject in the streets, parks, car parks and alleyways.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said Yarra police continued to retain a strong focus on disrupting and dismantling drug-related crime in the Richmond area.

A state government spokesman said the Richmond injecting room had saved at least 44 lives.

“The safety of the community is always our top priority which is why we have delivered increased security measures at the site and boosted access to alcohol or drug, housing and mental health services,” he said.

Originally published as Drug researchers call for more safe injecting rooms across Victoria