Controversial injecting room to be permanent, despite North Richmond residents pleading with MPs to move the facility

Legislation to make the North Richmond injecting room permanent has passed parliament, despite community backlash over the facility’s “catastrophic harm”.

A man was found severely drug affected and holding syringes just metres from Richmond West Primary School.

The controversial North Richmond injecting room will become a permanent facility, ending a five year trial at the site.

Legislation to make the change passed parliament on Thursday night, with the government blocking moves to prohibit facilities operating near schools, childcare centres and community centres.

Moves to broaden the eligibility criteria to allow children under 18 to use the facility were also blocked.

Since the facility first opened police and ambulance triple-0 call-outs to the area have more than doubled.

The legislation to make the facility permanent passed parliament on Thursday night.

A review of the facility, published in March, found that 6000 overdoses had occurred at the site during the five-year trial.

In that time, not one person died from an overdose.

Modelling suggested the injecting room may have prevented up to 63 deaths.

An earlier review recommended the government setup a second safe-injecting room in the City of Melbourne, near to an illicit drug market and wider network of services.

Plans for a second facility have not yet been announced.

It comes after frustrated North Richmond residents wrote an open letter to all Victorian MPs urging them to move the injecting room and make significant improvements to how the facility operates.

In an open letter to MPs, supported by dozens of local residents and business owners, it says the community desperately want their voices heard as legislation to turn the injecting room into a permanent facility will be debated in parliament on Thursday.

Under the opposition’s amendments, any permanent drug injecting room must be at least 250m from any education or care services.

It would also require annual reports from service providers to increase transparency.

There have been 6000 overdoses at the site during the five-year trial. Picture: Jason Edwards

It comes as neighbours were yet again exposed to the shocking realities of open drug use, after a man was found severely drug affected, lying on the footpath and holding syringes just metres from the primary school on Tuesday.

The residents said in the letter: “When it comes to the supervised injecting room, you have sadly let our community down at every opportunity.”

“We had no warning about the MSIR trial being cut short, and barely a few days’ notice that the final decision to make it permanent would be this week,” they added.

“Only a small handful of you who will soon vote on what our children’s future looks like have made any effort to speak to us.”

They also highlighted they had tried, unsuccessfully, as one of the largest stakeholders to have their concerns taken seriously.

“This government has made it clear that they treat the drug addicts with more respect than the residents.

“There cannot be a complete report on an injecting facility while failing to mention one of the substances used there, methamphetamine.”

Neighbours stressed that MPs need to consider the location choice and the impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of the children at the primary school next door to the facility.

“You can’t say our children are not at risk when you need to install security fences, CCTV and constant security guards at the gates just so they can attend school every day.
“How can you ignore our school council’s pleas after the safety audit identified a likely and foreseeable risk of catastrophic harm?”

The letter also said residents were promised that when the room opened that it would take injecting off the streets, but the opposite has occurred.

“We’ve had more dead bodies in the streets since the room opened than ever before,” they wrote.

“This trial has not been a success by any measure that balances the community impact.

“All our community has ever wanted is to work with the government to find a solution that properly balances the safety and wellbeing of residents and those who use supervised injecting facilities.

“If this is about harm minimisation, our community is asking that you vote in a way that considers the very real and current harms faced by us and our children, every day that this room continues to operate where it is.”