Mum hits out amid new plans for Melbourne's safe injecting rooms
A mother opposing the Victorian government’s expansion of its controversial injecting room trial has revealed how her two-year-old child witnessed someone overdosing on the street.
The state government says an expansion of Melbourne's drug injecting room trial will help stop more addicts shooting up on inner-city streets but mother and local resident Letitia Wilkinson disagrees.
She revealed how an unsavoury moment with her young child reinforced her stance on the injecting rooms with one just next door to her child’s school, Richmond West Primary.
"Last week my two-year-old witnessed an overdose where my husband had to call an ambulance and check if they were still alive," she told Sunrise.
The concerned parent isn’t alone, with strong resistance in the community over what they believe is an escalating problem.
Resident Marilyn Sinclair said the rooms were initially for heroin addicts but believes drug users are now using the facility for taking ice leading to “unpredictable outcomes”.
“I was nearly hit by a milk carton by somebody losing it,” she told Sunrise, revealing the problem is the worst it’s been in decades.
"I've been here for 25 years and I've never experienced what I've experienced in the last few months.”
A new centre at North Richmond opened its doors on Sunday, more than a year into the controversial 18-month trial.
It was previously based at a local community health clinic next door but Mental Health Minister Martin Foley says the new, bigger facility with longer opening hours will help stop people shooting up on the streets.
Overdoses safely managed
There have been more than 60,000 visits to the centre and nearly 3000 people have used it to inject drugs, mostly heroin, since it opened in June last year.
More than 1200 overdoses have also been safely managed, the trial's medical director Nico Clark says.
"Many of those were severe overdoses, people not breathing, completely unconscious, revived by our staff," he told reporters on Sunday.
The government says there are more security patrols and outreach services in the area amid ongoing community complaints about the trial.
Council workers are collecting drug paraphernalia including syringes from the streets twice a day.
It comes after a coroner last month revealed there had been virtually no reduction in heroin-related deaths around North Richmond in the centre's first six months of operation.
But Coroner Audrey Jamieson also said the trial was essential and six months was not enough time to judge its effect on drug-related harm in the area.
Ms Wilkinson she was more than willing to keep the facilities if they were proven to be working however reiterated there must be legislation that ensures they are kept away from schools and childcare centres.
In April, another Richmond mother with her son witnessed a drug user injecting himself on the street.lWith AAP
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