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Further implications
Many of the arguments put against retaining injection centres in built-up areas are in fact arguments against establishing injection centres anywhere. These objections focus on doubts that injecting facilities save the number of lives that are claimed and concerns that they may actually encourage overdoses by giving drug takers the confidence to take larger quantities of drugs.
Other concerns which are raised that also are not affected by the injecting centre's location are concerns that establishing such centres anywhere is a misuse of government funds and in particular a misuse of funds which would be better spent more directly assisting addicts into rehabilitation.
However, there are criticisms that do relate directly to where the centre is located.
From this perspective, in Australia, the North Richmond centre appears to have attracted far more criticism than the Kings Cross facility. One of the main reasons for this is the location of the North Richmond centre next to a primary school. The primary school principal has not complained that the injecting room has worsened the situation of the school's students;
however, there are many parents who clearly appear to believe that this is not the case and that their children are being unnecessarily traumatized by having an injecting centre nearby. The change in position of the former Victorian premier, Jeff Kennett, is an interesting example of the impact of the North Melbourne centre's location on its acceptability to the Richmond community. Mr Kennett is a supporter of supervised injection centres as a way of saving lives and was originally part of the group overseeing this centre. Now he is opposed to its operation and his opposition stems from where the centre is situated. In an opinion piece published in The Herald Sun on March 30, 2021, he stated, 'The current location, next to a primary school in Richmond, is totally inappropriate.' It would appear that if the Victorian government wishes to regain the support of the Richmond community for the centre it will need to place it somewhere that is not adjacent to a sensitive facility like a school. Relocating it anywhere else will be controversial and will be likely to create some opposition from those most immediately affected but having the facility next to a school vastly increases the number of people opposed to its presence. Locating it in a less problematic location would be likely to reduce opposition.The Kings Cross injecting centre has not provoked the sort of local opposition that the North Richmond centre is now receiving. There may well be reasons for this that extend beyond the fact that the Kings Cross facility is not near a school. The Richmond community survey of local residents and businesspeople conducted immediately before the trial (in June 2018) and again after a year of operation indicated that support for the injecting room in North Richmond fell from 61 to 44 percent among residents and from 48 to 41 per cent among businesses.
Part of the reason for this loss of local support is that the community perception in Richmond is that there has not been a clear reduction in the number of discarded syringes littering the local streets. Some residents believe that the amount of drug-related litter has increased. The Richmond centre follows a passive model for the management of drug-related waste on the streets and elsewhere. Residents and others who find discarded injecting equipment around North Richmond Community Health are asked to contact the centre and they will come and dispose of the items. Similarly, anyone who finds a syringe in a street or park or wants someone to pick up a syringe from their property, can request syringe management services online or by calling the council.
This places the responsibility on residents and means that there may well be a significant delay before the waste is removed. Kings Cross, on the other hand, adopts a far more proactive strategy for managing drug-related litter. The Kirketon Road Centre, a primary health care service in Kings Cross, provides a Needle Clean Up service which collects discarded needles and syringes in Eastern Sydney and Darlinghurst, Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo on weekdays. A designated worker collects any injecting equipment discarded in public locations identified as 'hot spots', which are monitored and adjusted when patterns of public injecting change. The majority of hot spots are located within a 500-metre radius of the Kings Cross Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. This means that needles and syringes are actively collected from 'hot spots' without a member of the public first having to request this service. The worker also responds to calls from the public to the New South Wales Needle Clean Up Hotline. In Kings Cross, the number of publicly discarded needles and syringes approximately halved after the centre opened and this appears to have contributed to 70 percent of local businesses and 78 percent of residents supporting the centre's existence. After the North Richmond centre was reviewed in 2020, the Victorian Government announced a $9 million investment to undertake neighbourhood renewal and improve the area around the North Richmond facility to alleviate concerns. A more effective means of drug-related litter management will need to be part of this reform or public dissatisfaction is likely to remain.