By Adam Carey
Calls for an 18-month trial of a safe injecting room for drug addicts have been rejected by the Andrews government, despite its admission that drug and alcohol abuse is out of control in some communities.
Reason Party MP Fiona Patten proposed an 18-month trial of a medically supervised injecting room near Victoria Street in North Richmond, the epicentre of Melbourne's heroin crisis.
Thirty-four people died from drug overdoses in the area last year and hundreds more needed treatment.
But a parliamentary inquiry report by a group of cross-party MPs failed to take a definitive stance on the trial, with MPs split along party lines.
The mural near Victoria Street which bears the names of 34 people who have died from drug overdoses.Credit: Justin McManus
The government said in response to the "considered" report that it would not legalise a safe injecting room, despite 46 of 49 submissions to the proposal being in favour of one.
Martin Foley, the Minister for Mental Health, said the government had an established policy against trialling a safe injecting room, on the advice of experts including Victoria Police.
"We know that alcohol and drug issues, not just in inner Melbourne, right across the state, have too many people in its grip," Mr Foley said.
More than 20 per cent of all people who die from a heroin overdose in Victoria either die in, or source the drug from, North Richmond.Credit: Jason South
Victoria Police neither endorsed nor opposed a trial in its submission to the inquiry, but argued that any such trial should extend beyond 18 months if it went ahead, "to allow a thorough trial measuring health, social and justice indicators".
Ms Patten said the opinion of medical experts, including three coronial reports and the Australian Medical Association, overwhelmingly endorsed a trial.
"Only one conclusion can possibly be drawn on the evidence put before the inquiry," she said.
"That is, that the Parliament must endorse this trial."
The Greens also want a safe injecting room.
"This report doesn't provide a path forward, and while the government buried its head in the sand, people are dying," Greens MP Nina Springle said.
Protesters in Victoria Street, Richmond call for a safe injecting room.Credit: Paul Jeffers
The Coalition argued there is "no such thing as a safe injecting room for deadly and dangerous drugs like heroin and ice".
Nationals MP Emma Kealy said if one safe injecting room opened in Richmond, others would inevitably pop up in other areas of the state with drug abuse problems, including Frankston, Bendigo, Mentone and Morwell.
"It sends the wrong message to our kids and effectively says we've given up on preventing drug use," Ms Kealy said.
The report made 11 findings, including that an injecting room in Kings Cross, Sydney improved public amenity in the local area and reduced demand on ambulance services.
"The evaluations did not find evidence of the medically supervised injecting centre having a 'honey pot' effect on crime," the report found.