In a major decision yesterday, the Yarra City Council decided to retract its longstanding endorsement of the North Richmond Medically Supervised Injection Room (MSIR).

Mayor Stephen Jolly expressed that while the council remains in favor of the idea behind supervised injection facilities, the current location is far from ideal.

Jolly voiced his concerns during an interview on 3AW, stating, “Placing a supervised injecting center adjacent to a primary school and a public housing estate is a recipe for disaster.”

He further remarked, “It’s as if the situation was designed to fail from the start.”

The proximity of the facility to a primary school has been a frequent point of contention among critics.

In 2021, Richmond West Primary School was placed into lockdown after a man was found dead after suffering a drug overdose outside the school.

In its eight years of operation, the North Richmond safe injecting room has saved dozens of lives and safely managed thousands of overdoses, according to data from the Department of Health.

But Jolly accused the state government of lying about its plans to expand safe injecting facilities across the state.

“They said there would be several, so that one suburb, in this instance North Richmond, wouldn’t have to take the heat for the whole of Victoria,” he said.

“They lied about all of that. Now 10 years on, we’ve only got one.

”We’re carrying the load for the whole state and it’s not fair.”

Premier Jacinta Allan remained steadfast in her stance to continue operating the service from North Richmond.

“We have no intention to change the operation of the medically supervised safe injecting facility that is located in Richmond because it is saving lives,” Allan said.

“There is data that shows the significant number of deaths that have been prevented because of the important access that people with serious drug addiction have to this lifesaving service.”

But Jolly argued the service does not support users in the aftermath of drug injection.

“There’s not enough counselling. There’s no rehab, there’s no detox,” he said.

“If you had better support services, people wouldn’t just be roaming around, high, in North Richmond, terrorising and scaring the locals. 

They’d actually be helped. None of that is happening.

“It’s just a dumping ground for drug users.”

The safe injecting room’s chief executive, Simone Heald, said the council’s backflip showed a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what the community needs.

“The Medically Supervised Injecting Room operates where Melbourne’s drug market has existed for decades,” the North Richmond Community Health chief executive said.

”With more than half a million visits and more than 11,000 overdoses managed without a single death, it has established itself as one of the world’s busiest and most effective supervised injecting facilities.”