Do you think that having a room specifically for drug addicts to smoke ice will improve Australia’s current ice epidemic?
Well that’s the question that was asked on last night’s ABC episode of 7.30, with an Aussie drug expert, Dr Alex Wodak, believing it should come into place.
Along with Matt Noffs, author of Breaking the Ice, the two experts think that creating a medically supervised room will make things safer from drug users and the community, and would help addicts get into treatment.
This controversial idea is emulated from a similar room in Switzerland which has been in place for 30 years.
Germany also has a drug inhalation room which allows people to take cocaine and heroin while being supervised.
Noffs said he feels like Australia is behind in the times in this regard, and needs to follow in the footsteps of Europe.
Former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer told 7.30 that there’s more to be done in the ice epidemic.
“There is a wide recognition among law enforcement colleagues, including young officers as well as more experienced ones, the current arrangements aren’t achieving the outcomes we would like to achieve,” he said.
Dr Wodak and Noffs believe Sydney’s west could do with an ice inhalation room, believing that Liverpool is the right place to put it.
But Liverpool Chamber of Commerce president Harry Hunt disagrees, saying it would project an image of Liverpool as a “drug capital”.
Sydney’s King Cross has an injection room which has seen a drop in people dying from heroin.
Dr Wodaks and Noffs believe this is proof it could work, but the NSW Government told 7.30 they wouldn’t support the plan.
Despite this, the two men still want to move forward with the plan.
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