It is expected that pressure will be used to stop the establishment of Safe Injecting Rooms in Australia. Ways in which Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform might respond to this visit will be discussed at the March meeting. Fatal drug overdoses will not be reduced In ten years, there has not been one fatal overdose in the Swiss injecting rooms. The rate of fatal overdoses in the city of Frankfurt went from 150 down to 30 within four years of opening injecting rooms. A major benefit of injecting rooms is that staff are on hand to administer first aid and to call an ambulance in an emergency situation.
Ambulances arrive sooner as locations are known and easily accessible.
Injecting rooms will increase drug use The same argument was put forward prior to the introduction of needle syringe exchange programs, however no studies have indicated an increase in illicit drug injection associated with syringe exchanges. Injecting rooms do not supply drugs or make them more available, they simply offer a clean monitored environment in which users can inject. This is a very real concern and any move to introduce or trial these facilities must be communicated carefully. Injecting rooms must be represented as a response to a public health issue, that places an emphasis on keeping people alive and safe, and not an encouragement for people to use drugs. It is recommended that these facilities only operate in areas of existing high drug trade activity and frequent public injection.