Children ‘scared’ by drug-affected man outside Melbourne primary school

“Scared children” have witnessed a shocking scene outside a Melbourne primary school in broad daylight. Locals say it is nothing new.

“This is normal for our children”.

That’s the chilling response from locals after pictures and videos emerged showing a drug-affected man writhing and crying out on the ground a short walk from a Melbourne primary school.

Videos of the incident, captured by schoolchildren on their mobile phones and seen by news.com.au, show the man struggling less than 100m from the school — one that has made headlines in recent years because of its proximity to Melbourne’s only safe injecting room.

The footage shows children walk by the man and two female police officers. As the young boys pass, one looks back to take in the shocking scene.

A child looks back as a drug affected man is attended to by police in Richmond.

The incident took place a short walk from a primary school.

A young boy filmed the scene and later showed his father the video. The boy’s dad said he had lived nearby for decades and seen it all but this incident was particularly difficult.

“It was heart dropping when I heard what that kid said in my lounge room,” he told news.com.au.

Another local who shared pictures and videos said the man was creating a scene.

“Extremely heavily drug affected male for all to see including scared children as pictured on their way home from school,” she said.

“Police resources had been with said male for over an hour and then moved him up the hill.”

The local said that when police were asked whether the man was a client of the controversial medically supervised injecting room (MSIR), they responded: “I’m not sure, they weren’t very helpful to be honest.”

News.com.au approached the MSIR for comment. Simone Heald, the CEO of North Richmond Community Health, said incidents like this “highlight why we need comprehensive, compassionate healthcare for our most vulnerable community members and our outreach team is available seven days a week to take calls from the public so we can provide assistance quickly”.

“Our services operate in what has been Melbourne’s largest street-based drug market for decades — without them we would have more overdoses in public spaces, more ambulances racing through streets and more pressure on our hospitals,” she said.

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In March, news.com.au published several articles on the area, including one which showed disturbing footage of a man overdosing outside commission flats next door to the MSIR.

The footage showed a woman hovering over a man in the darkness, holding a needle to his neck that she later revealed contained “pure heroin”.

Within minutes, the man began stumbling around an slapping himself in the face.

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

When news.com.au visited the flats, residents shared horror stories about what it’s like to live next door to Melbourne’s heroin ground zero.

“I don’t feel safe,” a 51-year-old long-time resident said.

A drug user inside a milk bar outside the MSIR. Picture: news.com.au

A woman injects drugs into a man’s neck outside commission flats in North Richmond.

“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.”

A man in his 30s who had lived in the highrise towers had this to say about the injecting room being located next to a primary school: “It’s the worst idea ever.”

“A lot of my friends grew up in the towers and let’s just say they didn’t end up too well.

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

Melbourne is Australia’s heroin capital. Users here account for almost half of the nation’s heroin use, according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s most recent wastewater testing statistics. And it’s only getting worse.

Heroin users in Victoria used an estimated 456kg of the drug in 2023. NSW came in second with 366kg, well ahead of Queensland in third at 82kg.

Drug users have for decades come to parts of Richmond to score. They were there before the injecting room arrived, but those who live nearby say they have come in droves since it opened.

Reformed and recovering drug addicts who spoke to news.com.au say only one side of the story is being told.

Troubling scenes are nothing new for residents who live next to the MSIR. Picture: news.com.au

Residents of the commission flats say it’s hard to live where they do.

“It’s pretty well known what it’s like around here. It’s not the greatest,” a recovering heroin addict said.

But he said he would not be where he is today without it.

“The injecting room is a good thing. I’m a recovering addict myself. I think they could’ve placed it somewhere a bit better, know what I mean? But I used the room. I used the room a fair bit.”

The 44-year-old man, who did not wish to have his name included in this story, said he is on buvidal — a drug that gives recovering users a prolonged release of buprenorphine to help stave off opioid dependence

“I remember before the injecting room, it was a lot worse,” he said. “It has in some ways helped, in other ways it’s got worse.”

North Richmond Community Health, which manages the safe injecting room, says that between 2018 and 2023 there were almost 8000 overdoses inside the facility and all were safely managed.

Most overdoses were treated with oxygen but some required the use of an opioid that reverses the effects of heroin.