Melbourne injecting room will allow ice

There will be no restriction on the types of drugs that can be consumed at Melbourne's new injecting room despite a previous ban on the drug ice.

Melbourne's new drug injecting centre

Melbourne's new injecting centre will give addicts a safe place to consume their drugs. (AAP)

Any drug of dependence, including ice, will be able to be injected in Melbourne's new supervised injecting room despite the state government previously saying it would be banned.

The medically-supervised injecting centre's regulations say any drug of dependence can be injected at the facility, but users must have less than a trafficable amount.

"The government is following the advice of the expert panel, which includes Victoria Police. This trial will save lives and that's why we're doing it," Victoria Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr Foley said the regulations were in line with Sydney's King Cross safe injecting room, which hasn't had a death since opening more than 15 years ago.

"Even the opposition spokesperson in her contribution to the parliamentary debate said that by making it only a heroin-injecting room, it would miss many other Victorians who are multi-drug users," Mr Foley said.

Under the centre's guidelines, clients must disclose what drugs they intend to use so staff are ready for any potential overdose.

Any client who appears to have drugs above the permitted amount will not be allowed inside the North Richmond Community Health Service room.

People with a criminal history would also not be allowed to work there, while those known to be on parole, bail, or subject to any other court or tribunal order would be banned from using drugs in the room.

The government previously announced the centre would be trialled in the inner-Melbourne overdose hotspot in a bid to battle the city's heroin scourge and amphetamines and ice would be banned.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy opposed having ice users at the centre.

"What type of idiotic irresponsible out of touch government allows ice addicts to congregate next door to a primary school?" Mr Guy told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Guy said the government backflipped after saying the centre wouldn't proceed, then saying it would go ahead, but ice users would be banned.

If the coalition won the November election, it would keep the two-year trial, starting in June, but exclude ice users, he said.

The facility will be Australia's second, modelled on Sydney's Kings Cross centre, which opened in 2001.

There have been 34 deaths in the North Richmond area in 2017.


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Source: AAP



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