Residents for Victoria Street Drug Solutions (RVSDS) are calling for bipartisan support from the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and the Opposition Leader Matthew Guy to take the necessary steps to establish the trial of a fixed position Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) in the vicinity of Victoria Street in North Richmond, Melbourne.

Local residents want change. We have had in one year:

34 deaths, people are dying preventable deaths in our streets

840,000 needles, that litter our streets, parks and front gardens

Over 2,000 ambulance call outs, meaning crews are unavailable for other emergencies

Drug dealing is rampant at all hours along the street, impacting businesses, visitors and residents.

The Sydney MSIC has worked successfully for 16 years, with not a single fatal overdose. The MSIC significantly reduced public injecting, discarded needles and ambulance call outs. An MSIC offers the gateway for counselling, rehabilitation and support services to be provided.

An MSIC does not have a 'honeypot effect', police report no increase in crime and drug use. The Sydney MSIC is open for extended business hours only - not for 24 hours day and night, dealing is prohibited, and the centre is wholly funded from confiscated proceeds of crime.

As residents, we don't want our children subjected to people injecting in public, discarding needles and potentially overdosing in front of them. We do want them to be able play, walking through Autumn leaves, without the fear of needlestick injuries, we want an MSIC In Our Backyard.