Melbourne injecting room: Salvation Army hub on Bourke Street being considered for CBD site | Melbourne – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

A Salvation Army hub in Bourke Street, in Melbourne’s CBD, could become home to a controversial second supervised injecting room, but the final decision is yet to be made.

The Victorian government is understood to be considering housing the room out of the charity’s building, near the state parliament.

It is the hub for its Melbourne Project 614, which supports people experiencing homelessness, mental health issues, alcohol and other drug addictions and social poverty.

Salvation Army major Brendan Nottle said he has seen the impacts of drug overdoses and drug-related deaths first-hand across more than two decades working in the CBD.

“I have said for many years we need a second supervised injecting room in the CBD because it will save lives,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Any proposed location is a matter for the Victorian government and I will leave it to them to get on with their work.”

Former Victoria police commissioner Ken Lay delivered his report on drug-taking patterns in the city’s CBD to the mental health minister, Gabrielle Williams, at the end of June.

The repeatedly delayed report is yet to be released, as Williams considers the government’s response.

A medically supervised injecting room trial in the CBD has been under consideration for several years, after an initial site in North Richmond was opened in 2018.

A mooted plan to locate the second injecting room a block from the Queen Victoria Market was shot down by the City of Melbourne in 2020,…