More Success in Sydney

Sydney's heroin safe injection site opened in March of 2001. It's been five years, so I'm sure that the UN, John Howard, and the Pope were all channelling great foresight when they strongly opposed it. Not quite...

SYDNEY, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The number of heroin-related deaths in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, has dropped dramatically.

Newly released figures for the past six years also show a drop in presentations to state hospital emergency rooms.

NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said in a statement that "last year, there were 615 heroin-related presentations to hospital -- a 66 percent decrease on the 1,854 cases recorded in 2000. In January to March 2006, there were only seven heroin-related deaths reported, a 92 percent decrease on the 89 deaths recorded in the same months six years ago."