Tim Blair

But from the Sun Herald's sister publication this morning:

December 15, 2003

A top policeman has thrown his support behind Australia's first supervised drug injecting centre after claims it has caused an explosion in the drug trade in Kings Cross.

Kings Cross local area commander Dave Darcy was quoted as telling The Sun-Herald an estimated 800 heroin deals took place each day around the injecting room and police were powerless to stop them.

But NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Dick Adams denied the injecting room had become a "honey pot" for drug dealers.

He said although police would never eradicate the drug trade, crime in the area had been halved since the injecting room opened.

So which cop is telling the truth?

The Cross has been a major dealing site for decades - long before the safe injecting room opened. And let's be clear: it was opened on the principal provisos that it might assist in lowering the number of OD deaths and the rate of disease transmission, not that it would eradicate drug dealing (and heroin is but one part of that ongoing trade).

I think Darcy is having a crack (scuse the pun) at explaining his stats which - judging by my last stroll through the area - aren't looking too good: In broad daylight, on the steps of the Kings Cross police station, a deal was going down.

You'll stop drug dealing when humanity decides that the joys of chemically induced pleasure pale into insignificance compared to, say, staying home clean and sober with a really good book on the sunlit paths to self-enlightenment ....

In the meantime, Dave Darcy will still have to explain his stats....:)

There'll be drug dealing as long as there is big money in it,
which will be as long as drugs are addictive,
and illegal.

We can fix the illegal part.

The state (I know, nasty socialist idea) could supply pharmacologically pure drugs to addicts,
for a tiny fraction of the cost of current law enforcement, and all the associated crime and disease (Hep C, AIDS &c).

However, too many people are making too much money from the current situation.
This makes economically rational reform unlikely

There'll be drug dealing as long as there is big money in it,
which will be as long as drugs are addictive,
and illegal.

We can fix the illegal part.

The state (I know, nasty socialist idea) could supply pharmacologically pure drugs to addicts,
for a tiny fraction of the cost of current law enforcement, and all the associated crime and disease (Hep C, AIDS &c).

However, too many people are making too much money from the current situation.
This makes economically rational reform unlikely

There'll be drug dealing as long as there is big money in it,
which will be as long as drugs are addictive,
and illegal.

We can fix the illegal part.

The state (I know, nasty socialist idea) could supply pharmacologically pure drugs to addicts,
for a tiny fraction of the cost of current law enforcement, and all the associated crime and disease (Hep C, AIDS &c).

However, too many people are making too much money from the current situation.
This makes economically rational reform unlikely

Too many hits, Peggy.

Is there such a thing as passive injecting?