A heroin user says more addicts are drawn to Richmond to buy and inject the drug

Drug overdoses on the street, public injecting and dealing in front of schools, this is a normal day in Victoria’s new epicentre for heroin users.

The streets of North Richmond have become the place to buy heroin, according to the man at the centre of this week’s shocking footage showing him overdosing on a suburban street in front of stunned young children.

John overdosed from heroin in a side street about 200m from the safe injecting room. Picture: Jason Edwards

John, 51, told the Herald Sun that when he first came to Melbourne from Queensland more than 20 years ago, Collingwood was the heroin epicentre but now he visits North Richmond.

“Is there another place to get heroin, besides Richmond?” he said to the Herald Sun.

The 30-year heroin user said he often used the medically supervised injection room but also injected in the street.

“They sell heroin in the suburb. You should have the injection room in the suburb,’’ he said, confirming the “honey-pot effect” that the room has lured more dealers and users.

The street trade has escalated to the point where dealers are believed to be pre-loading syringes with the deadly drug to secure sales.

A concerned man watches on as John begins to overdose. Picture: Jason Edwards

It comes as new data shows that more than 2 million needles were handed out annually by the North Richmond Community Health centre, which houses the injection room.

The number of needles given out every six months by North Richmond Community Health, varied between 166,000 and 270,000 between 2010 and 2014, health department data obtained by residents’ group MRAC under Freedom of Information laws showed.

The numbers rose with the opening of the needle vending machine in 2015 and spiked again in 2018 with the opening of the injection room.

The latest syringe total, for the six months to June 30 last year, showed 1.2 million needles were handed out from both the needle program and the injecting room trial.

MRAC spokesman David Horseman said several agencies cleaned the streets of used syringes so it was hard to quantify how many are disposed of properly.

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NEEDLES ISSUED BY NORTH RICHMOND COMMUNITY HEALTH

Jan-Jun 201 0: 270,700

Jul-Dec 2010: 249,800

Jan-Jun 2011: 166,000

Jul-Dec 2011: 214,100

Jan-Jun 2012: 177,500

Jul-Dec 2012: 194,700

Jan-Jun 2013: 202,300

Jul-Dec 2013: 265,000

Jan-Jun 2014: 240,800

Jul-Dec 2014: 252,700

Jan-Jun 2015: 329,200

Jul-Dec 2015: 385,100

Jan-Jun 2016: 431,000

Jul-Dec 2016: 602,900

Jan-Jun 2017: 817,400

Jul-Dec 2017: 898,000

Jan-Jun 2018: 1,168,900

JULY 2018 INJECTING ROOM OPEN

Jul-Dec 2018: 1,163,300

Jan-Jun 2019: 1,223,000