FDS Insight Magazine Jun - Sep 2023

27 Both indoor and outdoor production methods would be adopted. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) would retain the current cannabis-related resources to combat the black market and associated crimes after legalisation, though the Greens have noted that most resources currently directed at cannabis law enforcement lie within state level jurisdictions. ‘The costing assumes 10 per cent of the cannabis sold under the scheme would be sold to tourists, with the potential this could grow. This green gold could become the life blood of many regional areas currently struggling for viable local industries,’ Mr Shoebridge said. ‘The community has been waiting decades for cannabis legalisation. It’s time for the parliament to catch up, and this report provides another 28 billion reasons to get on with it.’ Melbourne’s injecting room delay puts lives at risk as heroin overdoses spike in CBD Calt Kelly, The Guardian (24/1/23) he return to regular trading in Melbourne’s CBD has coincided with a spike in heroin-related overdoses, with drug experts warning that stalling the city’s second safe-injecting room is putting lives at risk. Former police commissioner Ken Lay is still finalising a report, which was meant to be handed down in 2020, that will recommend the best site for the second safe-injecting room – believed to be the former Yooralla building on Flinders Street. The delay is putting pressure on community health professionals, who have noted an increase in overdoses and people needing immediate support for drug-and-alcohol-related health issues. Data from Cohealth, a community health organisation and provider of choice for the second safe-injecting room, shows their City Street Health team has recorded a steady increase in the number of clients accessing the service in the past 12 months. The team has reported four overdoses in the past four months, compared with three in the previous nine months. Greg Denham, the community partnerships facilitator at Cohealth, said that in 2022 the program engaged with more than 1,428 people in the CBD, 75% of whom were homeless. ‘Since the beginning of this year we’ve seen a steady increase [in] numbers of people we’re dealing with,’ Denham said. ‘We’re now in a position in the middle of January, where we’re already above what we were in December for the whole month. We’re pushing, at the current rate, 300 to 350 people this month’ T