THE postcodes of drug users visiting Frankston’s methadone outlets will be collected to help authorities identify the best locations for methadone outlets in other areas.
The short-term tactic is aimed at diluting the cluster of six outlets near the station that dispense opioid replacement therapies – and reducing the need for addicts to congregate there.
It is a key outcome of a meeting held last Thursday between the Minister for Community Services, Mary Wooldridge, and Frankston councillors, aimed at combating drug-related problems in Frankston city centre.
Also attending was David Southwick, Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Services and Minister Kim Wells, who toured the city after the meeting to see the action.
The area around the station is regarded as a “mecca” for drug users whose presence is blamed for increased crime and anti-social behaviour.
A “secondary market” of dealing in methadone to fuel drug habits has sprung up and some of the pharmacies’ clients travel from outside the area to hang around the station and Young St.
Around 570 clients are registered for opioid replacement therapy in the city centre, up from 192 a decade ago.
Over the past few months the councillors have repeatedly urged the minister to visit Frankston to see first-hand how the methadone program was degrading the city’s liveability and giving it a “junky image”.
Some had even threatened to protest on the steps of parliament to force the state government to “do something” about crime here.
At the meeting they made it clear the current concentration of pharmacotherapy outlets and the needle exchange program were “directly impacting on our local traders, shoppers and visitors”.
CCTV footage showing illegal drug activity illustrated their plight. This included footage showing drug addicts “shooting up” in full view of passersby and near the station and police station. Others scenes showed a mother injecting herself while her young child was present.
At the meeting Minister Wooldridge committed to holding a forum of relevant ministers “to identify solutions to drug issues and pinpointing what data needs to be collected to fully understand the use of the methadone services”.
Cr Glenn Aitken said the minister had queried the link between bad behaviour and methadone usage. “We maintain that it is a significant factor but she thinks it is not the whole issue,” he said.
“Generally, though, we appear to be ‘on the same page’: she has agreed to ongoing, in-depth discussions with the council, and we will attempt to find out where the users are coming from, which may be from within Frankston, but also from Hastings, the Mornington Peninsula as a whole, and the outer areas of Dandenong.”
Discussions at the meeting focused on ways of vetting users who would not be supplied with methadone without their lifestyles being scrutinised. “We can’t affect change unless the supply of drugs is accompanied by a strong intervention process,” Cr Aitken said.
Cr Colin Hampton said the minister appeared “tuned in” to the city’s drugs problem but “seemed amazed we did not know the postcodes of users”. He hoped a list of postcodes could be drawn up from notes in the prescription process.
