By eamonn duff
Former NSW premier Bob Carr, who approved Sydney's medically supervised heroin injecting centre, has backed the service being broadened to include smoking rooms for ice users.
Mr Carr said the existing centre had been a "demonstrable success" and saved many lives because his government had treated heroin dependency as a medical problem.
"Maybe, subject to all the necessary controls, we can now do the same with ice," he said.
As the NSW government reiterated on Saturday that it had "no plans" to open a drug-consumption room for ice users, one of its own addiction treatment specialists came out in support of the concept, announcing he is ready to help pilot Australia's first "ice room" in Sydney's west - where the drug is currently wreaking havoc.
There are 26 inhalation centres dotted across Germany - with connected treatment services.Credit: Bert Bostelmann / gettyimages
"I would personally jump at the chance of being involved in a facility like those abroad," said Dr Robert Graham, who has worked in NSW public hospital drug and alcohol services for 15 years and is currently based in western sydney.
"Where there is a demonstrated public health need, I think you are duty bound to pursue what's in the best interests of the community. I want to see it done in an organised, rigorous, scientific way and I would prefer to see it done according to where it is needed most." he said, adding: "If it works in one place, why shouldn't it work in other areas where drug use is prevalent and social disadvantage goes hand in hand with that."
Drug law reform campaigners Dr Alex Wodak and Matt Noffs are lobbying for the government to allow ice smoking rooms as a harm-reduction strategy similar to the medically supervised injecting centre (MSIC) at Kings Cross, but where clean pipes and smoking equipment would be available, as opposed to fresh needles.
Former AFP chief Mick Palmer has also backed calls for ice rooms, saying the present law enforcement strategy has "failed".
Former NSW Premier Bob Carr is backing calls for ice roomsCredit: Alex Ellinghausen
There are more than 30 inhalation rooms dotted across Germany and Switzerland - and almost 90 worldwide. Two years ago a European Commission-funded report referred to the rooms and the reduction in related overdose deaths as a "milestone" in the development of drug services.
In 1999, Mr Carr had been plagued with inner conflict as he weighed up whether to approve the MSIC - which remains Australia's only legal drug-consumption centre.
Robert Graham at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) in Kings Cross.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Today, however, he regards that bold decision as one of the most significant achievements of his political career. After a 10-year trial, a report by KPMG for the NSW government, found the MSIC had reduced drug-related deaths and reached a "socially marginalised and vulnerable population group" which, frequently, had experienced "no previous interaction" with any form of support service. When compared with other "health outcomes" that had flowed from within the health system, the centre was also calculated to be saving at least $658,000 per annum.
But while it was opened in direct response to the heroin epidemic that had consumed Kings Cross by the late-'90s, ice has now presented a set of different dilemmas.
Staff preparing clean tools for consumption room clients in Germany.Credit: Bert Bostelmann
Fairfax Media can confirm that the NSW Ministry of Health and Department of Justice is presently conducting the first statutory review of the MSIC since it became a permanent health service in 2011. The findings are scheduled to be reported to Parliament in November. Mr Carr said: "Let's look at the data. If drug use has shifted from heroin to another drug, then let's look at whether we need to broaden the definition of the MSIC."
Dr Graham, meanwhile, put it this way: "If people are considering whether to inject or inhale, it is a bit perverse that you can access safe, clean needles but not safe, clean ice pipes," he said. "Once you have safe inhalation equipment, you should have a safe space with appropriate links to health services.
Former AFP commissioner Mick Palmer said it was time to take the risk and trial new options because, as evidence demonstrates elsewhere, "it's working".
"The reality is, people are going to take ice," said Mr Palmer, who was the nation's top police officer for seven years until his retirement in March 2001.
"Privately, serving officers - including very senior serving officers - share the same thoughts as me," he said. "But as you can appreciate, it's very difficult when you have an obligation to police the government's policy of the day to come out and argue against it."
Email: eduff@fairfaxmedia.com.au