Heroin City ‘no longer relevant’

By Shaun Inguanzo
HEROIN City is dead but its reputation still lingers.
Dandenong Senior Sergeant Wayne Stokes, who fought Springvale’s drug problem when it was at its worst, is now working with the Springvale Drug Action Community Forum (SDACF) to debunk the myths and stigmas affecting Springvale’s reputation.
Sen Sgt Stokes will join other community representatives next week at a special Myths Busted forum hosted by SDACF in Springvale.
SDACF chairman Eddie Micallef said the forum on Tuesday, 3 October would tackle the taboo and often stigmatised issues such as Hepatitis C, Springvale’s reputation as a drug-ridden city, and its multiculturalism.
Sen Sgt Stokes will tell residents how Springvale has improved since its ‘Heroin City’ days to become a ‘safe market town’.
He said all that remained was a bad reputation that could take years for people to forget.
“Six or seven years ago there were headlines in the daily papers calling Springvale ‘Heroin City’, with a picture of a young woman openly injecting while sitting in a car,” Sen Sgt Stokes said.
“There was quite blatant drug dealing occurring on Springvale Road, up and down the shopping centre precinct, and it was occurring on a daily basis.
“So the police about four years ago developed a method of targeting street dealing and were able to reduce it quite significantly.
“There was a correspondingly large reduction in crime associated with the reduction in drug activity.”
Sen Sgt Stokes said a survey of 40 central Springvale traders conducted in November 2005 showed 70 per cent felt Springvale was safer, and 83 per cent believed the drug situation had reduced dramatically.
Pier Moro from the Hepatitis C Council of Victoria will also speak at the forum in a bid to debunk the myths surrounding the disease and its contraction.
“The common myths are that you can get it sexually or get it by sharing food, or by hugging or kissing,” he said. “But it is only a blood-to-blood virus.”
Mr Moro said sharing old needles to inject heroin was the most common way hepatitis C was spread in Australia.
He said education programs and needle hand-out programs had helped reduce the spread of hepatitis C, but more community awareness was needed.
The forum will run from 4pm to 6pm on Tuesday, 3 October at the City of Greater Dandenong council chamber, 397-405 Springvale Road, Springvale.
Book by calling Amanda Paul at the City of Greater Dandenong on 9239 5135.