Buses proposed as alternative to permanent safe injecting room

The buses would be easy to move and target changing drug hotspots, but experts said they wouldn’t be able to cope with the current demand in Melbourne.

Mini-buses and vans are already in operation in European cities such as Copenhagen and Berlin and in Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

They are fitted out with two-to-three injection booths, with the ability to move around different locations or set up for longer periods of time.

The Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association said the buses would need to be supported by additional services.

“A bus would have two-to-three booths, and a very small number of staff on it,” chief executive Sam Biondo said.

Premier Daniel Andrews wouldn’t comment today on whether mobile injecting buses could be part of a solution.

“Clearly we have an injecting-drug-use problem in the city and clearly we have people losing their lives to that,” Andrews said.

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“We have more in coming weeks (but) we are far from perfect in the CBD.”

Debate continues over whether the government-owned site on Flinders Street would be the appropriate location for a permanent injecting room.

“This is one of the main places people come and is the first stop for tourists. They need to be very careful because it can impact businesses as well,” Degraves Espresso’s Lola Milcheva said.

CBD resident Daniel Daly, who is part of pro-injecting-room group Keep Our City Alive, said the permanent room was crucial.

“I see people who need more support than they are getting and that is why I have joined a campaign for a permanent injecting room in the city,” Daly said.

“Mobile buses sound like part of a solution, but our campaign is recommending a permanent site.”

The government is expected to make an official response to the long-overdue report into the site in the coming weeks.