City’s heroin shame uncovered as addict overdoses in front of kids
A Herald Sun photographer has captured dramatic scenes as a man overdosed in front of young schoolchildren in Richmond, while the extent of the fallout from the suburb’s injecting room is revealed.
VIC News
Don't miss out on the headlines from VIC News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This is a residential street in inner Melbourne at school pick-up time — in a suburb where overdoses are spiralling and property prices plunging.
Two children returning home are confronted with terrifying scenes no young person should have to witness.
A heroin addict is overdosing — dying — his panicked mate abandoning him in the gutter.
As the children were ushered away, the Herald Sun alerted paramedics who saved the man from his fifth overdose in just a month.
It comes as the number of ambulance call-outs for drug overdoses in the City of Yarra rose by more than 15 per cent during the first year of the supervised injecting room trial in North Richmond.
A record 975 ambulance call-outs — about 19 a week — were logged in Yarra while call-out numbers in neighbouring Darebin, Melbourne and Port Phillip council areas fell.
About two-thirds of the Yarra call-outs were for suspected heroin overdoses.
The data suggests fears of the “honey pot” effect are being realised, and plentiful supply of the killer drug — as cheap as $25 a hit — has lured dealers and users.
A 38-year-old Morwell woman was allegedly caught last month trafficking heroin in Lennox St, the same street where the injecting room is located.
Many addicts are using the injecting room but significant numbers of users are also injecting in public places.
Traders and residents say street drug use and anti-social behaviour has worsened since the injecting room opened.
At least two people, including a 15-year-old boy and a Reservoir man, have died of suspected overdoses near the injecting room in recent months.
The State Coroner found virtually no reduction in heroin-related deaths near the centre during its first six months, but no updates have been released since.
Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said the North Richmond community had grappled with drug use for decades.
“Which is why following the more than 30 overdose deaths in the area and recommendations from coroners we acted to trial the medically supervised injecting room,’’ he said.
More than 2500 potentially fatal overdoses had been safely managed in the centre and lives saved, Mr Foley said.
Residents group MRAC spokesman David Horseman said the data confirmed the notion of a honey pot effect.
“We’ve been building real evidence for some time now and it takes it beyond the anecdote argument that gets thrown back at us,’’ Mr Horseman said.
The Ambulance Victoria data, compiled by Turning Point addiction treatment centre and Eastern Health, showed Yarra call-outs for illicit drugs rose from 844 in the year before the injection room opened to 975 in its first year of operation.
Call-outs across six inner-Melbourne council areas were down 1.1 per cent in the same period. The Yarra data contains call-outs for the entire municipality, which includes Collingwood and Fitzroy.
Victoria Police’s Yarra area commander, Inspector Anne Rudd, said foot and proactive patrols had increased in Richmond, Collingwood and Abbotsford in the past two years.
“Uniformed and plainclothes police conduct regular operations at train stations, tram stops and tram routes in Richmond and surrounding areas,” she said.
In a string of recent arrests, police nabbed a 19-year-old alleged drug dealer, seizing methamphetamines, two mobile phones, drug paraphernalia and cash.
A Mt Eliza couple were also charged last month with trafficking heroin and methylamphetamine, while an 18-year-old Richmond man was arrested for allegedly dealing cannabis from a vehicle in Richmond on New Year’s Eve.
MORE NEWS
HEROIN SCOURGE BLAMED FOR PLUNGING PROPERTY PRICES
HEROIN ADDICT SHARES HARROWING TALE MOMENTS AFTER OVERDOSING
POLICE TO PROBE SCHOOLGIRL TIKTOK VIDEO
Incidents of public drug-taking and discarded used syringes have spread to streets around Bridge Rd and parts of East Melbourne.
A three-person independent panel will review the trial this year. Ambulance call-out data be part of the feedback.
READ MORE ON THIS ISSUE: HEROIN ADDICT SHARES HARROWING TALE MOMENTS AFTER OVERDOSING