A FORMER Wodonga resident has played a pivotal role in Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews back-flipping on a decision to conduct a safe injecting room trial in inner Melbourne on Tuesday.
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Judy Ryan and her husband John moved back to Melbourne in 2012 and soon discovered the area where they had bought their new home in Abbotsford was a world away from their former digs in Wodonga.
The tipping point for Ms Ryan to fight for a safe injecting facility came mid-way through last year when she came across a young man who had a drug overdose in the laneway behind their home.
“It was so distressing trying to get onto Triple-Zero and getting ambulances out,” she said.
“I thought he was going to die.
“The problem was getting worse and more people were using drugs in the laneway.”
Ms Ryan grew up in Wangaratta and her family has been touched by the scourge of drugs.
Two nephews, aged 21 and 28, had died of overdoses in 1996 and 2003 and she felt compelled to do something.
“It has been a 12-month campaign to get to this point,” she said.
“The residents have had a gutful because we are at the coalface and have just said no more.
“The management of this problem had been outsourced to us, but we weren’t going to take it any more.
“To their credit they listened.”
Thirty-four people have died to heroin overdoses alone in a four-block area in the Abbotsford area in the last 12 months.
A woman also collapsed from a suspected heroin overdose only metres from Mr Andrews when he was making the announcement on Tuesday.
Ms Ryan applauded him for changing his mind when politicians of all persuasions were averse to admitting mistakes.
“He came out and said he was wrong,” he said.
“He said he had expert advice, looked at the data and listened to the residents so good on him.”
Ms Ryan co-founded Victoria Street Drug Solutions with the lobby group growing from just four members to “hundreds” in the past year.
She also contested the City of Yarra council elections last year on the creation of a safe-injecting room alone and momentum built further from a recent major rally.
Ms Ryan also visited the Sydney facility set up in Kings Cross in 2001 recently.
“Sydney police are saying it works because they are seeing a reduction in their workload and seeing people being treated,” she said.
“We’ve never said it is the silver bullet to fixing the problem.
“But what’s been happening in Victoria simply has not been working.”
