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  • Drug Injecting Rooms – not a stand-alone solution.

    Overall, we believe that harm reduction should only be used as part of the continuum of care rather than as a stand-alone solution. The experience of MSIRs in Australia and North America demonstrates that offering a location for people to safely inject drugs without having it actively linked to a referral system leads to even more dangerous situations, such as a high risk of overdose, higher drug use, and increased profit for drug dealers. Based on the research, we can only conclude that providing a safe location to inject drugs is not the ultimate solution. It is contradictory to offer access to drugs to only then have to intervene with naloxone to reverse overdose. The report clearly shows that MSIRs have become an environment in which drug users feel they are able to “safely” experiment with different types of drugs, leading to exponentially higher.

    Regina Mattsson  Secretary General World Federation Against Drugs(WFAD) made to the President of the International Narcotics Control Board 2021   

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Vic govt firm against injecting rooms 2012

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THE Victorian government is continuing to oppose safe injecting rooms despite the peak doctors' lobby group campaigning for change.

Australian Medical Association (AMA) Victoria president Stephen Parnis says it is time to trial safe injecting rooms in Melbourne because their use will save lives and minimise the social harm of illicit drug use.

But Community Services Minister Mary Wooldridge has restated the government's opposition to the proposal.

"The government does not support the establishment of injecting rooms," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Our harm reduction priorities are focused in other areas, including the significant expansion of pharmacotherapy services, with the doubling of the budget and expanding needle syringe programs in areas of particular need."

Dr Parnis said safe injecting rooms had the capacity to cut the number of deaths from drug overdoses, reduce ambulance call-outs and hospital admissions, lift patient outcomes and improve public order.

"Supervised injecting facilities have worked to reduce harm in Sydney's King's Cross and we're hopeful they can do the same in Melbourne's drug hotspots," he said.