North Richmond public injecting impact study

New research undertaken on the streets of Richmond and Abbotsford has revealed increasing health risks for people who inject drugs and significant community concern over the impact of injecting in public areas.

The Burnet Institute report, ”North Richmond Public Injecting Impact Study” by Dr Robyn Dwyer, Professor Robert Power and Professor Paul Dietze was released on Monday 20 May.

The researchers identified increasing high rates of heroin-related overdose attendances by Ambulance Victoria (The City of Yarra had the highest number of attendances of any local government in Melbourne); a four-fold increase in the past two years in the collection of needles and syringes from street-sweeps; and a lack of access to sterile injecting equipment after hours and on weekends leading to a medium to high risk of blood-borne virus infection amongst people who re-used syringes.

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