Legislation gives injection centre a shot in the arm

After almost a decade of deliberation The Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre has been granted permanent status.

Last week’s Lower House bill to remove the centre’s temporary status passed through NSW Parliament’s Lower House by a decisive vote of 57 to 29 and the bill passed the upper house on Wednesday.

The Injecting Centre’s Medical Director, Dr Marianne Jauncey, says that although the bill will not change any of the day-to-day functions of the centre it has significant symbolic meaning.

“We are very pleased that more than a decade’s worth of work has been recognised as being successful,” she said.

“This is a win for common sense, a win for evidence based policy and a win for the people of King’s Cross who have been very supportive of the centre since it opened.”

The centre opened on a trial basis in May 2001 and required an act of Parliament every four years to continue its practice.

However, there are some members of the community who contest the evidence used to justify the decision.

Former Darlinghurst Road business owner Andrew Strauss says a June survey reporting 70 per cent approval from businesses in the area is “bullshit”.

“Their survey went down to almost Central railway. It wasn’t Kings Cross. It was 2010 and 2011 postcode?” he said.

Mr Strauss says he petitioned owners and managers of 65 businesses on Darlinghurst Road and 63 wanted the Injecting Centre moved.

“One of them didn’t want to answer the survey because he had a conflict of interest and another woman thought [the current Centre] was a good idea,” he said.

But Dr Jauncey says the service must be located where the overdoses are.

“Kings Cross and specifically Darlinghurst Road have the highest concentration of people dying of heroin overdoses in the country,” she said.

“It did not suit 100 per cent of people, but it was by far the most popular choice.”

Long time resident and former Deputy Lord Mayor Dixie Coulton wants the government to revert to its initial plan of establishing the Centre at St Vincents, because she says the Centre is increasing the drug trade on the area’s main road.

“It’s not true that somebody’s going to get their heroin from the western suburbs and get on the train and go into the injecting centre and use it – they go up there to buy it and go into it.

Dr Jauncey cited four reports put out by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research that discount a ‘honeypot’ effect.

“You can come up with all the anecdotes in the world, but at the end of the day, that is not what the evidence shows,” she said.

“There are now 11 independent evaluation reports from five different organisations all of which clearly show that the service is meeting its goals in saving lives, is doing so without adverse outcomes and is cost effective.”

The bill passed through the upper house on Wednesday.