Victoria should follow Sydney’s lead and introduce a supervised drug injectin g centre, a Salvation Army worker says. Salvation Army program worker Sally Finn pointed to the success of the supervised injecting room, which opened five years ago in Kings Cross. All 1400 people who overdosed on the Kings Cross premises in its first four years had been resuscitated,’ Ms Finn said. ‘I think it’s very much needed,’she said.
Ms Finn was speaking at St Kilda for Overdose Day, which she founded six years ago to recognise the suffering caused by drug overdose. Between 1988 and 2004, 8661 people in Australia died from heroin overdose. While the rate of overdoses had since declined, it was still vital to acknowledge those who had lost their lives or suffered permanent injury, Ms Finn said.
Helen Barnacle, who was jailed for eight years for drug use and has lost many friends to drugs, said it was difficult to lose the tag of ‘drug user’. ‘It’s like people only see a part of you and they become blind to the strengths you have,’ Ms Barnacle said. |
