2024-07-04
The Victorian Greens and health experts have long warned of the threat of deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl and nitazenes entering the Victorian community.
In light of recent reports of synthetic opioids being detected in the bodies of four people who tragically died in Broadmeadows last week, it’s clear that these deadly substances are well and truly here.
The Victorian Greens have said the new Premier must listen to the health advice and establish supervised injecting services across the state to prevent mass overdose deaths like those being seen in the US.
The Victorian Greens say that while the new Premier has adopted a harm reduction approach for young people who will engage with pill testing, she is refusing to offer those same protections to vulnerable people who use injectable drugs.
Greens spokesperson for drug harm reduction, Aiv Puglielli said that this is a matter of life and death, and the new Premier must take on the threat of new synthetic substances to avoid sleepwalking into a deadly opioid crisis.
Victorian Greens spokesperson for Drug Harm Reduction, Aiv Puglielli said:
“The new Premier has said that as a parent she fears about drug related harm. Every person who overdoses from injecting drugs is someone's child. Do they not deserve the same protections? Do they not deserve resuscitation?
“We’ve been warned about synthetic opioids like fentanyl and nitazenes, we know that they kill and now they’ve arrived and are becoming increasingly common in the community.
“Safe injecting rooms have the capacity for resuscitation and the resources to save lives. As these deadly drugs become more and more common in the community, it is a matter of life and death.
“If we want to prevent the mass death events that we’re seeing in places like the US from occurring here, then the Premier must listen to the expert advice and establish more safe injecting rooms.
“These synthetic opioids, fentanyl, nitazenes - they’re in pills, they’re in powders, they’re injected. They’re everywhere, and without injecting rooms Victoria is sleepwalking into a drug overdose crisis.
“The advice is clear - the central recommendation of former Police Commissioner Ken Lay’s report was for the Labor Government to establish an injecting room in the City of Melbourne, and yet Labor ignored that and axed their prior commitment for the service anyway.”