By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Australian Sex Party leader Fiona Patten has declared Cranbourne was never a part of her proposed trial of medically-supervised safe-injecting rooms in Richmond.
Ms Patten – who is leading a state parliamentary enquiry into the trial – attacked Casey Council’s “strong” opposition to any safe-injecting rooms in the municipality on 18 April.
“Where the council gets this idea that a centre will move to Cranbourne is beyond me.
“There’s never been a suggestion that a safe-injecting room would be based in Cranbourne.
“The only place it came from was from (South-East Metropolitan MP) Inga Peulich. She somehow decided that was the case.
“It certainly wasn’t me and I was the mother of the proposal.”
Ms Patten also took aim at Premier Daniel Andrews and State Opposition leader Matthew Guy, telling them to “put their sticks down” and drop their opposition to the 12-month trial.
It was backed by a Coroner’s Court recommendation for a safe injecting centre in Richmond, as well as by local doctors, traders, paramedics and residents, Ms Patten says.
There had been 34 overdoses in Richmond in the past year.
“In Richmond, everyone wants it. We’ve got every single agency on side but Matthew Guy and Daniel Andrews aren’t going to do it because it’s not ‘tough on crime’.”
She said according to research, all of the 100 safe-injecting sites around the world had reduced overdoses, ambulance call-outs, used syringe litter and the cost of drug-crime trials.
“There has been no increase in drug dealing in these areas.”
Police around Australia’s only safe-injecting centre in Kings’ Cross in Sydney had found it to be “brilliant”, Ms Patten said.
“Rather than dealing with drug overdoses and people hitting up in the streets, they’re dealing with the drug traffickers, burglaries and those types of crimes.“
Ms Patten directly refuted Casey Cr Gary Rowe’s claim that fatal “hot shots” could be delivered in a safe-injecting room.
“There’s never been an overdose death in a safe-injecting room,” she said.
Ms Patten, who is also involved in a drug-law reform inquiry at State Parliament, said Victoria was “behind the eight-ball” in drug treatment and needed a “holistic” approach.
“We know that safe-injecting rooms help people get to treatment and on the path to rehabilitation. It’s the best way to reduce harm.
“We speak to parents of drug addicts who died. They say if only our son and daughter could be saved before their drug overdose.
“We need to focus on saving lives.”
She said jailing drug addicts didn’t deal with the underlying causes of their addiction.
“The safe injection centre by taking people off the streets and get them talking to a social worker is the best response to law-and-order.
“We’ve tried more CCTV, more police, increasing penalties for drug users … these approaches haven’t worked.”
Councillor Susan Serey, who introduced the motion at an 18 April meeting, said Cranbourne had been mentioned in State Parliament as an illicit drug hotspot.
The suburb might be one of the first locations if “drug injecting rooms” were introduced, she said.
The injecting-room approach was “soft”, encouraged illicit drug use and drug trafficking and sent the “wrong message” to young people.
The issue was better tackled by more drug rehabilitation facilities, with Victoria well behind NSW’s 800 available beds, Cr Serey said.
The state inquiry into the safe-injecting room trial reports back in September.
