Calls for an additional injecting room in the Western Suburbs of Sydney have led Drug Free Australia to once again highlight the failure of the Kings Cross injecting room, which hosts overdose rates 63 times higher than clients’ own overdose histories before entering the room.

When new clients enter the Kings Cross injecting room for the first time, they give their details on an official registration form, which asks, among other things, how many times they have ever overdosed and how long they have used illicit drugs.

By taking this information, readily available in a public evaluation of the injecting room, Drug Free Australia has been able to show that overdose rates in the facility, in its first decade of operation, were 63 times higher than clients’ own overdose rates before entering the facility.

Such extraordinary numbers of overdose inevitably means that clients are experimenting by using more illicit drugs than usual in the facility, which must inevitably be purchased from drug dealers, lining their pockets.  The injecting room is thereby a government-funded accessory to NSW’s illicit drug trade and any new Western Suburbs facility would be an additional government accessory.

A 2007 study on the Kings Cross injecting room - claiming that it reduced ambulance callouts for overdose by 80% - has been shown to be in error.  This falsely publicised study measured the effect of the heroin drought on ambulance callouts due to the Australian heroin drought, which intervened just months before the Kings Cross facility opened.  The rest of NSW had callout reductions by day of 61% against reductions in Kings Cross of 80% when the injecting room was open, evidencing a 19% better result for Kings Cross.  What the study failed to highlight from their own data was that Kings Cross, at night when the injecting room was closed, had 29% greater reductions than the rest of NSW, indicating that sniffer dog policing, which is used moreso at night than daytime, was responsible for the overdose reductions in the area.  This policing had the effect of sharply increasing ambulance callouts in neighbouring Darlinghurst, which was not policed in the same manner.

Claims also that the injecting room saves lives are also falsified by the injecting room’s own evaluations in 2003 and 2007, which showed no reductions whatsoever for overdose presentations in nearby hospitals.  It is also well-established that in Australia there is one fatal overdose for every 110,000 opiate injections on the street, and the Kings Cross facility only averages 51,000 yearly - half that number in a year, demonstrating that the multiple millions spent each year are wasted on a facility that can only legitimately claim to save one life statistically every two years. 

Harm reduction measures such as these add to drug death tolls in Australia, which typically triple whenever drug prevention is deprioritised.  Opiate deaths under harm minimisation tripled between 1985, when the approach was federally adopted, to 6.75 deaths per100,000 by 1999, plummeting to 2.2/100,000 by 2006 under the drug prevention strategies of the 1998 Federal Tough on Drugs policy, before shooting up to 5.75/100,000 by 2017 because harm reduction priorities were made ascendent again.  Injecting rooms, a key plank of Harm Minimisation, are an iconic part of this failed approach – prolonging opiate users’ opiate injecting careers and ongoing exposure to fatal overdose opportunity.

Gary Christian 
Drug Free Australia - 0422 163 141

This communication is sent on the understanding that it is a constitutional right to petition political representatives.

Conclusions:  This Bulletin shows that lifetime use of the MSIR reported by participants in the Melbourne IDRS has increased over time, as has frequent use of the MSIR, categorised as ≥50% of reported injections. Our findings suggests that there have been few impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the overall use of the facility in this sample despite major changes in the operation of the service (6), and evidence of an overall downturn in the number of injecting episodes accommodated by the service during the pandemic noted by author NC. The characteristics of those who reported MSIR use changed little over the years, and were consistent with previous work (4), with people experiencing marginalisation over-represented, as were those who experienced recent non-fatal heroin overdose. This is likely to be related to the fact that most people’s drug of choice was reported as being heroin. Less use of the MSIR among those in drug treatment highlights the importance of the facility for those not engaged in treatment and the potential referral pathways into treatment that the facility provides (2). It is important to note that participants were recruited predominantly from needle and syringe programs, who are already likely to be engages with services, and so we cannot draw conclusions on access for the broader population of people who inject drugs. Similarly, reasons given for not attending the MSIR changed little over survey years. The findings around distance highlight the need for the expansion of supervised injecting facilities to other areas of melbourne such as the Melbourne CBD which has been flagged for a second MSIR.

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A critical examination of safe injection sites reveals their ineffectiveness in addressing the drug crisis. Despite intentions to reduce harm, these facilities have consistently failed to deliver meaningful outcomes and have often exacerbated local drug problems. It is essential to reconsider the legalisation and support of such initiatives to protect community health and safety. (Source: WRD News)

by CAA | Mar 8, 2024  

The long-awaited report by former Police Commissioner Ken Lay into the possible location of another Safe injecting room for the CBD is now moot, having not seen the light of day.

There is now overwhelming evidence that the purpose of the facility, Called MSIR, to care for drug addicts has failed, and more addicts die as a result of the existence and function of the facility than happens without it.

An eighteen-month analysis of the MSIR overdose rates makes for a compelling read and reality check.

Not only is the facility an abject failure operationally, but the community impact has failed to be considered, and many of the locals and residents have been forced to live in a twilight of fear. Their crime is that they are unfortunate enough to happen to live in an area where the Government has placed the MSIR.

1. MSIR failure to perform its intended function. Intended to reduce the death rate of addicts, the MSIR overdose rates are 23.5/1000 or 102 times higher than the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC); the MSIR doesn’t work and must be immediately closed to save the lives of addicts.
2. The suffering inflicted on the residents is beyond comprehension for a failed social experiment. The MSIR is a magnet and has become the epicentre of the illicit street drug trade in Victoria, with addicts all over the state travelling to the MSIR not necessarily to use the facility but to access the rampant drug trade.

For complete article

The big question underlying a drug consumption room in Glasgow is why the Scottish government and health authorities do not invest more in resources to support drug users become drug-free rather than use drugs, Professor Neil McKeganey critiques.

See also Fears grow that consumption rooms will lead to kids believing drugs are safe 

and Drug consumption rooms morally void. (Courtesy DB Recovery Resources)