Reservoir man dies of suspected overdose near North Richmond injecting room
Despite paramedics’ efforts to save his life, a man has died after a suspected drug overdose close to North Richmond’s controversial injecting room.
VIC News
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A man has died of a suspected overdose in the laundry of a public housing block just a few hundred metres from Melbourne’s controversial injecting room.
The 40-year-old man from Reservoir was found unconscious during a routine security sweep last Friday.
Paramedics were called about 2.50am but the man, who was not a tenant, could not be saved.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said: “Every single death to drugs is a terrible tragedy.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the family and friends affected during this time.
“Victoria Police is investigating the matter and as such we are unable to provide any further comment at this stage.”
The man’s death comes after 15-year-old Tyrone Woxvold died in November from a heroin overdose in the bathroom of his Richmond family home.
Staff at the nearby supervised injecting room have managed more than 2500 overdoses since it open on June 30, 2018.
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Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the injecting room was “failing to get people off these dangerous drugs”.
“Victoria has got a massive drug problem, we’ve got an injecting centre where you’ve got outreach workers allegedly selling drugs to the users, and the government just doesn’t have a plan to deal with this,” she said.