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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly

Melbourne’s injecting room delay puts lives at risk as heroin overdoses spike in CBD

Booths at at Melbourne’s first safe-injecting room at the North Richmond Community Health Centre
Melbourne’s first safe-injecting room at the North Richmond Community Health Centre. Photograph: Luke Henriques-Gomes/The Guardian

The return to regular trading in Melbourne’s CBD has coincided with a spike in heroin-related overdoses, with drug experts warning that stalling the city’s second safe-injecting room is putting lives at risk.

Former police commissioner Ken Lay is still finalising a report, which was meant to be handed down in 2020, that will recommend the best site for the second safe-injecting room – believed to be the former Yooralla building on Flinders Street.

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