Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my time in this place I have been concerned with strategies to counter organised criminal networks operating in Australia, among the most insidious forms of which are those that profit from human misery through the trade in illicit drugs. Next week we will all be reminded of the importance of combating the scourge in society that this trade represents when Drug Action Week commences, during which over 700 events are planned across Australia to promote awareness of the dangers of illicit drug use.

As the purchasing power of the Australian dollar rises, it is not only profiteering retailers who are failing to lower their prices to take into account the lower cost of buying their stock; drug dealers also have kept their prices high to maximise their profit margins. For an international drug trafficker Australia is a very attractive and profitable market. International drug cartels have had their sights set on how much their drugs are worth here and how high they can push up their prices, and we are grateful that through ever-improving methods of detection and deterrence the government is making their entry extremely difficult. Other factors forcing up the price of illegal drugs have been the success of our Customs and Border Protection regime in keeping drugs out and the criminal penalties imposed on anyone who participates in the trade and use of these substances.

More can always be done to ensure that the market for drugs in Australia is difficult to trade in. We want to continue sending a clear message that illicit drug use will not be tolerated in Australian society. But some policies, while they may be well-intentioned, have unintended consequences that threaten to detrimentally impact on this strong record of preventing and discouraging criminal drug use. One such policy has been the creation of drug injecting rooms such as the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, known as MSIC, in Kings Cross. This facility allows for the injection of illegally obtained drugs in a medically supervised environment. These places are often subsidised by the taxpayer either through direct contribution or because the operator is a tax-exempt entity. There is no compulsion among users to reduce drug use or to overcome their addiction, and the police do not ask questions about what goes on inside as these activities are protected from legal consequence. Sites such as these create a place where excessive and dangerous drug use is accepted and even encouraged as addicts are provided with an environment where their drug use is not condemned or penalised. An article in the Sunday Telegraph in 2006 examined an influx of ice users at the Kings Cross centre, which had become a magnet for this type of user because, as one participant was quoted as saying:

You can do what you want.

…   …   …

It's amnesty once you cross the door; cops can't touch you.

This influx was associated with increases in violence and destruction of property in the surrounding area. The article also quoted a police officer who referred to 'assault and malicious damage' as the main by-products of ice use in the centre. Even more worrying is evidence suggesting that the existence of these injecting rooms encourages users to take even greater risks than they usually would with the amount of drugs that they consume. Some have also been known to experiment with cocktails involving prescription medicines, commonly in combination with other drugs such as heroin. It is not purely illegal drugs that are being abused but also various combinations of substances. Some claim that every overdose or medical incident that takes place within the walls of an injecting centre is a life potentially saved on the street. But it is much more plausible that this overdose would not have occurred outside the environment provided by the centre which acted to encourage it in the first place.

In a 2003 study, an expert committee commissioned by Drug Free Australia found that the rate of overdose among clients prior to their attending the injection room was 42 times lower than the rate experienced by the clients inside the room. This is corroborated by evidence both from participants and from research commissioned by the Kings Cross centre. One former client of the centre has said of the overdosing there that users:

... feel a lot … safer, … because they know they can be brought back to life straight away.

…   …   …

… they feel it is a comfort zone, and no matter how much they use … they will be brought back.

Couple this statement with an evaluation conducted by the centre itself which concedes that the rate of heroin overdose at the centre is recognised to be many times higher than that experienced by users on the street, and the empirical conclusion is fairly logical and unsurprising: for an addict going for that increasingly elusive high, injecting rooms are a gift. Having the freedom to use as much as you like, knowing that there is someone in the next room with the ability to flush all the poison out of you, is a powerful incentive for attending the centre for the purpose of deliberately overdosing. A facility staffed by medically trained assistants condoning users' addictions by their silent complicity and filled with other addicts looking for a fix does nothing to reinforce the message that users should be working extremely hard to remove from their lives the destructive behaviour that they are engaging in. Far from helping to cure the addiction and combat the drug trade, these centres create a haven for the excessive use of drugs free from the penalty of law.

Considering the market element of this equation, drug injecting centres also assist organised crime in identifying potential customers. It may be difficult to sell drugs around the centres, as I am sure that close monitoring of such transactions would occur, but you can be sure that criminals have their eyes out for new buyers. The people who least need easy access to illicit drugs will be the first approached by the dealers, thanks to their attendance at these injecting rooms. Perversely, the combination of medical supervision and criminal amnesty does not create a centre where lives are saved, and it does not help users overcome their soul-destroying addiction to substances such as heroin and ice. The centre does not prevent the illegal trade in these substances and does not reduce the profitability of organised crime in any way. Instead, the centre encourages overdose and risky behaviour even in excess of the terrible risks that drug users face with every hit they take, and it helps criminals to find customers. But the most significant concern that I have with centres like Kings Cross, over and above these demonstrated negative outcomes, is also the most compelling case for their closure—the perception that illicit drug use is acceptable within the community. By undermining criminal sanctions against drug use, and by advertising a place where it is safe—and I use the word 'safe' with great qualification—to use drugs, injecting rooms by their very existence imply that illicit drug users can and should be able to find a way around the deterrence structure that society has developed in the interests of public safety and health.

By undermining the following principles—that no illicit drug use is safe, that trade in these substances is criminal, and that society will not tolerate it—we undermine the entire edifice that has made Australia one of the most difficult drug markets in the world to trade in, the same system that restricts the use of these chemicals and protects our community from all the social and financial side effects that accompany their consumption. I encourage all senators and members of the public to participate in Drug Action Week next week and show support for such efforts to create a society free of substance abuse through public awareness of the terrible toll that it takes on peoples' lives. As a community we should not allow this kind of behaviour to ever become mainstream or acceptable, and this is even more so the case for illicit drug use.