Daniel Andrews stalls on drug injecting site

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews admitted it was “unlikely” his government would decide on the site for Melbourne’s second drug injecting room before Nov­ember.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews admitted it was “unlikely” his government would decide on the site for Melbourne’s second drug injecting room before Nov­ember because former cop Ken Lay had not finished his review into the location of the facility.

“The pandemic has changed patterns of drug use – that is the advice we have received and you want to get this right,” Mr Andrews said. “Circumstances have changed like patterns of movement, where people are spending time, all of those issues are relevant to patterns of intravenous drug use also.”

Mr Andrews confirmed the government had purchased a site but refused to make any announcement about the location.

“The facility in Richmond has saved 44 lives, and has responded to 4500 overdoses,” Mr Andrews said. “Not everybody supports it, but it is not about getting universal support. If we tried to get universal support to save lives of injecting drug users, we would still be seeing people dying in gutters in North Richmond,” he said.

“We’ve made that decision. It was the right decision.”