Disturbing video shows drug user struggling after ‘pure heroin’ injected outside Richmond flats

A disturbing video shows Melbourne’s drug crisis at its absolute worst. But the shocking clip is just the tip of the iceberg. WARNING: Disturbing.

WARNING: Disturbing content.

A woman hovers over a man in the darkness.

She is holding a needle to his neck, injecting what she later reveals to be “pure heroin”.

Within minutes, the man is stumbling around, slapping himself in the face and writhing on the ground.

“He just had a whack of pure heroin, I shouldn’t have given it to him, f***. Any Narcan?” the woman asks in reference to the antidote to opioid drugs.

The video is a shocking first hand look at the effect of drugs in Richmond, the epicentre for Melbourne’s heroin epidemic.

TJ, who filmed the footage, told news.com.au he was shocked by what he was witnessing.

“People usually inject in privacy, however Richmond is known for this,” he said.

“I was shocked too see this happening as we literally had kids playing basketball and soccer metres away.”

A drug user struggles after have heroin injected into his neck in Richmond. Picture: YouTube: TJ_OFFICIAL_MELB

A woman injects heroin into the neck of a drug user in Lennox Street, Richmond. Picture: YouTube: TJ_OFFICIAL_MELB

News.com.au spent Friday evening visiting residents at the high-rise commission towers in Elizabeth Street, Richmond, directly adjacent to the city’s only injecting room.

They spoke openly about living side-by-side with drug dealers and drug addicts and how day-to-day life is full of frightening encounters with drug-affected individuals.

“No, I don’t feel safe,” 51-year-old long-time resident Jackie said.

“I found one dead body before the injecting room arrived,” she said. “But there have been more after. I feel so unsafe even during the day going for a walk. I get constant verbal abuse and sexual harassment.”

Dan, in his 30s, has lived at the high-rise towers since he was 12. He says the decision to place the injecting room next to a primary school was “the worst idea ever” and that several of his close friends growing up have died from overdosing on illicit drugs.

“One of them just had his first kid,” he said. “I knew him since he was 15 or 16. He was 22 years old and he f***ing died, mate.”

Other locals said the situation had become increasingly dire.

“Users get stuff from the injecting room and go into the car parks and use drugs there,” one resident said. “They use drugs in the stairwells of the towers, too.”

North Richmond residents continue to raise concerns about overdoses and ongoing safety issues nearby the injecting room.

The view from inside the towers on Elizabeth Street where drug use and dealing is rife. Picture: news.com.au

Another resident said they found a user passed out on the street and called triple-0.

“He was revived and then three hours later he was in a pub in Victoria Street, same guy.”

Needles are everywhere in the vicinity of the injecting room despite thousands being picked up every month.

Victoria is the heroin capital of Australia and Richmond accounts for a large share of users. The amount of heroin being consumed in Victoria is mindblowing. According to the latest research, there was almost 500kg of the drug consumed in Victoria in 2023.

NSW users accounted for 366kg and Queensland 82kg. Nationally the total was just shy of 1000kg.

Melbourne’s only safe injecting room was given permanent status in March 2023 by the Daniel Andrews Labor Government after a trial period and despite staunch opposition from locals, including parents of school children in the area.

A review of the initial trial, chaired by Professor Margaret Hamilton, found that more than 4400 overdoses had been safely managed inside the facility between 2018 and 2021.

Yarra Council says: “The facility is a safe and hygienic place where people can inject drugs in a supervised health setting. It also provides other health services like mental health care, drug treatment, wound care and pathology.”

Inside the towers at Richmond.

A drug user is passed out in Richmond, holding a needle.

But local resident Christine Maynard is among those saying the facility is also doing harm because of where it is located.

“There are enormous issues that come with having a drug den on their doorstep,” she said.

“They are so vulnerable. It’s outrageous that you see kids walking around the injecting room. What are we actually doing to these kids?

“I just spoke to two kids from a local school who live in the flats and it’s just normal to see drug users in and out of the buildings. It should never be normal.”

News.com.au previously obtained a 32-page document that revealed traumatic “experiences of Richmond West Primary School families”.

In it, parents talked about the school having “two lockdowns in one week”, children “needing professional counselling” and kids under 10 picking up needles.

Originally published as Disturbing video shows drug user struggling after ‘pure heroin’ injected outside Richmond flats