Melbourne opens ANOTHER injecting room because its first facility was overwhelmed by crowds of ice addicts

  • Melbourne will get another injecting room - however the location is undecided 
  • One potential location announced is near the city's Queen Victoria Market 
  • City Of Melbourne claim they weren't told about the potential injecting room 
  • The North Richmond facility, opened in 2018, has saved a total of 21 lives 
Melbourne will open another controversial injecting room which will be set up next to one of the city's busiest tourist attractions. 
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the facility will be opened near Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market.
The announcement comes just two years after another injecting room was opened in North Richmond.   
Victoria is getting a second safe injecting room, potentially near Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market (pictured)
Victoria is getting a second safe injecting room, potentially near Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market (pictured)
Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed the facility is on its way, complementing the safe injecting room which has been trialled at North Richmond from mid-2018. Pictured: North Richmond facility
Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed the facility is on its way, complementing the safe injecting room which has been trialled at North Richmond from mid-2018. Pictured: North Richmond facility
A review into the centre has told the government their preferred spot for a second site was Cohealth Central City on Victoria Street, a short walk from the Queen Victoria Market.
The government says it has accepted all recommendations from the review, including the opening of a second centre and extending the trial by three years.
There have been more than 119,000 visits to the North Richmond site and at least 21 lives saved.
The facility has handled 3,200 overdoses and no one has died.
'This is very important because it will save lives, I'm convinced of that. As you know, I did take some convincing early on,' Mr Andrews told reporters on Friday.
'But when you have expert after expert, law enforcement, doctors, people who've spent their entire life providing drug and alcohol support to a very vulnerable group of people and then of course when you hear stories of families that will never again be whole families where there is a loved one missing, that grief, that burden, that tragedy is with those families, every minute of every day - you have to rethink things and that's what we did.'
The second site is needed because there were 51 heroin-related deaths in the City of Melbourne between January 2015 and September 2019, the government says.
Consultation with the community, Victoria Police, the City of Melbourne, local health and community services and other authorities to confirm that the preferred site is the most appropriate location by the end of the year.
Legislation will also need to pass parliament to establish the second site.
There have been more than 119,000 visits to the North Richmond site (pictured) and at least 21 lives saved
There have been more than 119,000 visits to the North Richmond site (pictured) and at least 21 lives saved
Local Greens Councillor Rohan Leppert said the City Of Melbourne were not consulted before the announcement
Local Greens Councillor Rohan Leppert said the City Of Melbourne were not consulted before the announcement

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