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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2635 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Australia's health 2000 reports that the injection of illicit drugs can have significant adverse health effects, including drug overdose, the acquisition of blood-borne infection such as HIV or hepatitis C virus, and other illnesses from the injection of contaminants or impure substances. Heroin overdose deaths were in the top 20 causes of years of lost life for males, resulting in almost as many years of life lost as HIV/AIDS or leukaemia. A 1998 survey of injecting drug users visiting needle exchanges found that 2 per cent tested positive to HIV antibodies and 49 per cent tested positive to HCV antibody.

It has been estimated that every hour an injecting drug user somewhere in Australia contracts hepatitis C, an illness that will kill one in five sufferers. Studies have suggested that between 2 and 3 per cent of heroin users die each year. In the ACT, there were 16 deaths due to heroin overdose in 1998 and eight in 1999. There were 13 confirmed overdose deaths in 2000, eight of those confirmed heroin deaths and three the result of heroin and prescription drugs.

In 1999-2000, there were around 1,000 ambulance attendances in response to drug-related calls, almost half of which related to heroin. Across the country, opioid overdose deaths constitute the majority of deaths due to illicit drug use and an increasing proportion of all deaths, especially among the 25 to 34-year-old age group. It is likely that this trend will continue as new cohorts are recruited to heroin use in increasing numbers and at younger ages.

Clearly, we have a problem. It is a problem that this Assembly, to its credit, has not ignored. Indeed, whether members of the Assembly agree with it or not, I think that the Assembly does deserve praise for having the courage to at least examine ways to counter the harm done by heroin. The proposal for a heroin trial was developed as a way of breaking the link between the heroin-dependent person and the criminal supply of heroin. The supervised injecting rooms was put forward as a way of decreasing the risks associated with injecting drugs. At the end of the day, neither proposal eventuated. One was obstructed by the federal government and the other was denied funding by the Assembly.

This bill seeks to put those two initiatives to the people of Canberra. No matter whether you support these initiatives or oppose them-we all have different views on that-our collective efforts to do something about the drug problem in Canberra have stalled. The government sees a referendum as a way of helping to break the impasse one way or another. Support for either of the measures we propose to put to the people of Canberra will provide a blueprint for the way forward. Conversely, lack of support for either measure will send a clear signal that the community would want these measures off the agenda and other alternatives pursued.

It would be a foolish Assembly, or federal government, that blocked the will of the people. I believe that neither the Assembly nor the federal government should seek to deny the people of the territory their expressed wish for tackling one of the biggest social and health problems confronting the community.

Some advocates of a heroin trial or supervised injecting room have voiced some concern about the referendum. They say that they are worried that people will not be sufficiently informed to make a judgment on these issues. They say that they are worried that the

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