Local barrister Malcolm Duncan has taken out an injunction to prevent the local launch of 'In the eye of the needle', written by Ingrid van Beek, Medical Director of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre.
He claims there are defamatory statements in the book, which deals with the history of the Darlinghurst Road facility.
Duncan was active in the now-defunct Kings Cross Chamber of Commerce which took legal action to prevent the centre being opened in its present location. The chamber lost the action against the Uniting Church, which runs the centre, and heavy costs were ordered against the chamber which eventually resulted in it being wound up.
The launch was to have taken place at The Cross Art + Books on Tuesday at 6pm. The book is published by Allen & Unwin and we understand that the injunction does not prevent its sale.
12 comments:
Lets get the facts straight. The biggest supporters of the action to prevent the injection centre opening up on the strip were the hotels who feared that turning the Cross into a location to attract drug addicts would decimate the tourist industry and ultimately the hotels.
Well they proved right. The Wayside Chapel, the Kirketon Clinic, the K2 needle exchange, St Cannice, the MSIC all cashed in by congregating in the area and attracting “clients”. Their clients caused major tour operator groups to actively promote the fact that the Cross was to be avoided at all cost.
The Australian Hotel Association (accommodation division) repeatedly warned Clover Moore that they could not continue as hotels as the area was becoming seedy and they were experiencing massive cancellations as a result. News Corporation holds copies of all this correspondence.
The MSIC was the tip of the iceberg as Clover Moore is ineffectual and the labour police minister ignored the repeated requests of the community to do anything. THIS IS IN WRITING.
The hotels decided to get out in 1999 but only after the Olympics. The Uniting Church spokesman in January 2000 announced that the MSIC was their new business and that they would be joining the Chamber of Commerce. The tape of him making this statement is available as it was broadcast on national television. Several copies have been shown around the Cross.
The bulk of the money for the legal action came from the hotels. . The hotels were forced to close and the domino effect took place when the tourist infrastructure also collapsed. See the effect on the Burbon , tourist shops, money exchanges etc.
They Chamber did not pay all its bills because a lack of financial members who had closed down or gone broke.. Most of the legal fees were paid to the Uniting Church by the Chamber. An active plan to collect funds was undertaken by the remaining committee to pay the debts however because of the Clover Moore effect most were too poor to pay anything. ( “The MSIC had to be in the commercial area” )
The classic all round stupid comment came from Clover Moore when she recently wrote to the Wentworth Courier and stated that the Chamber could not pay its bills as and when they fell due. Stupidly she as a long term member of Parliament yet again failed to recognize that a Chamber of Commerce was not a trading organization as any year 12 economics student knows.
The biggest business in the Cross in now drugs. All made possible by greedy organizations raking in millions including welfare agencies, Churches, and drug dealers. Doctors are raking it in by dispensing methadone.
The Cross is the ultimate honey pot.
We all know who is the "Queen " and who are her drones.
Memo to Richard Walsh:
How the hell could you allow yourself to allow this trash posing as non fiction to be published.
It is sheer utter bullshit and a lousy work of fiction.
Why didn't you check the facts from this vicious little diatribe.
Mate what has happened to you since you left ACP ?
Re comment 1 above: If the hotels decided to close in 1999 and the MSIC was not anounced until 2000, how can the latter have caused the former? Please enlighten.
And while it seems undeniable that the MSIC must consolidate the heroin community in this area, the noticeable reduction in public injecting and public overdosing -- and the great reduction in the number of used syringes in the streets -- makes the area less seedy.
Perhaps the hotel owners also became convinced that they would simply make more money more quickly by selling to developers. Otherwise it makes no economic sense that so many closed so quickly -- and that two new hotels have since emerged in the same area.
Besides, the MSIC has been given a four-year incumbency by the state government -- the way forward for the Cross is to create positive people-magnets so the seedy scene retreats to its traditional position as just one edge of the diverse cultures that mix in this area. In my opinion.
Re the second comment above: Mate, what has Richard Walsh got to do with this?
Richard Walsh published this crap.
Why don't you link this site to the NSW Premier who announced a huge drop in heroin usage throughout NSW recently. The number of overdoses and injecting episodes have declined massively as well as ambulance call outs throught NSW. As a matter if interest the NSW decline is identical to the Cross.
Unfortunately the spin doctors at the MSIC would have you believe that it was their facility which is the cause of the drop in public injecting. The MSIC operatives sit piously at the community meedings as the little old blue rinse dears say there were fewer needles in the streets and thank the MSIC.
Give credit to the police as they are responsible for the rapid decline in public injecting and heroin dealing.The effect of the centre has been minimal as anyone who has bothered to read the report knows.
IT ia an absolute insult that the MSIC pretend to tak credit when the fully know the truth. I would hope that the new police commander is prepared to tell the true facts.
Home » Hansard & Papers » Legislative Assembly » 01/09/2004 »
NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard
DRUG USE
Page: 10651
Ms MARIANNE SALIBA: My question without notice is directed to the Premier. What is the Government's response to community concern about drug use in the community?
Mr BOB CARR: I am pleased to announce to the House that levels of heroin use have fallen dramatically in New South Wales over the past few years. That is due to effective intelligence-based policing, our comprehensive Drug Summit response, and the Australian heroin drought. While we rely on Customs and the Federal Police as our first line of defence against this poison, the New South Wales Police Force deserves some credit, and members opposite ought to give it some credit.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for The Hills to order.
Mr BOB CARR: Last year New South Wales police made 694 seizures of heroin. Members on both sides of the House should give them a bit of credit and support for that. Last year the State's police, whom the Opposition attacked, closed down 212 drug houses. They were assisted by the extra powers we gave them over drug houses. Credit should be given where it is due. A report by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre commissioned by the Government in November 2002 confirms that the number of current regular heroin users in New South Wales has dropped substantially. These are significant findings. The report found that in 2002 there were approximately 19,900 regular heroin users in the State, 58 per cent fewer than two years earlier. This is the very good news. The biggest decrease is in the younger age group.
The report also shows that drug-related harm is on the decline, with heroin deaths cut by 67 per cent and ambulance call-outs to overdoses cut by 55 per cent. The report attributes these improvements to the decline in heroin supply. There are two lessons we can draw from this. First, our tough law enforcement approach has made it harder for users to obtain drugs, forcing many of them to give up the habit cold turkey or seek treatment. Second, when those users do seek treatment, we have ensured that they have somewhere to go. As a result of the Drug Summit and the initiatives that came out of it, $400 million in extra spending has been invested to help people with a drug habit to beat that habit.
Heat the habit? Or keep the habit by going MSICING?
Bob Carr's spin is just that. It's a PR piece designed to justify prohibition.
Consider: if Carr's policing is so effective, why are most other illicit drugs on the increase? Wrong Mr Carr, it's the international heroin drought that's responsible for any reduction. Think Afghanistan (where poppy production is now back up to pre-invasion levels).
By the way, heroin is not a poison. It's a close relation to the endorphins our bodies produce naturally. That's why it's addictive -- regular use causes the body to shut down its own production and cold turkey withdrawal therefore feels like living death until production ramps up.
I'm not recommending it -- but the fact is that steady use is not harmful and 90% of the problems are in fact caused by prohibition itself, including the suffering infilicted on the rest of us by the heroin culture.
Know anyone who's had their house burgled, their car broken into or who has been mugged? Yes! Did the police investigate it? No!
Blame prohibition. That's the other price you pay for Carr's policies besides the tax burden he inflicts on you to pay for his prohibition circus.
I really can't understand why you lot put up with it.
On the other hand, I think the MSIC does help around here -- I see a lot more needles on the street in other areas now the sniffer dog blitz has moved so many people to neighbouring suburbs where they don't have an Injecting Centre.
Editor :- You are not going to change the wotld. Religion is the opium of the people as we all know. They just want to replace one drug with another.
Drugs and religion are a very potent mixture administered by a "high" priestess.
Carr is gutless. If he had any decency he would not pay the church the millions and let the government run it themselves.
The churches quietly wait to open up their Mc Dealers and Junky Jacks. This is their plan. Just you wait and see.
The phony spin about wanting to save lives and their salatious leaks to the press are truly amazing. Fortunately some of us have been kept informed about their spin.
There is one huge story resulting from the MSIC just waiting to be revealed by people who have some fantastic information. It will I understand be revealed at a time which suits the individuals who are privity to it. The fallout will be massive.
oh please, grow up
So it's impossible to change the world? Absolute rot! Thick boughs break, thin ones bend, straws break camels backs, or so I hear. You never know what a little whiteanting might achieve if you keep it up. At the least, you make a small difference, even if it is just exposing bullshitters to a few more people.
My reading of political activism is that you beat your head against a brick wall most of the time. Rarely, you break it. More often, you change the direction or colour of events even if you don't reverse them. Sometimes you can get issues on the agenda instead of under the carpet.
The only alternative is complete aquiescence -- and that's what THEY want.
Does that set a record for over-use of metaphors?
"oh please, grow up"
Just you wait and see.
The holders of the information are in no particular hurry to let it out. It will come at a time of their choosing. 100% guarantee,
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