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A plan to install a life-saving medicine dispenser near Melbourne’s safe injecting room has been scrapped after the local mayor claimed it would encourage drug use on the street rather than inside the medically supervised centre.
The Victorian government is investigating locations for a free naloxone dispensing machine in the City of Yarra, as part of a statewide trial to make the vital medication – which can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose – more accessible.
Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly wrote a letter to Health Minister Ingrid Stitt in June, asking her not to install a dispenser at a proposed site on Victoria Street near the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room.
Yarra staff told councillors that Jolly’s letter and a subsequent meeting between the council and the Department of Health is ultimately why the location on Victoria Street is no longer being considered.
The mayor told The Age that while he would support a naloxone machine on-site at the safe injecting room or at the nearby St Vincent’s Hospital, he did not want it along such a major thoroughfare.
“If we put [a machine] on Victoria Street … we’re encouraging people to use drugs on Victoria Street rather than go 100 metres to the south to the supervised injecting facility,” Jolly said.
“When you whack [a machine] on Victoria Street, where all the locals are and all the traders are … it’s almost like rubbing their nose in it.”
In June, the Victorian government announced a statewide trial program of the free 24/7 naloxone machines. Twenty dispensers will be rolled out as part of a wider $95 million program – 10 in Melbourne and 10 in regional Victoria. They will remain in place until June 2027.
Half of the machines have already been installed as part of the trial. A further seven local government areas have been earmarked as locations for the second tranche, but exact locations are yet to be announced.
There are still plans to install a machine somewhere in Yarra. A government spokesperson did not answer questions about the specific location, when it would be installed, or whether the letter from Jolly had impacted any decisions.
They said that discussions with the council to identify a suitable site commenced in August 2025.
President of the Victoria Street Business Association Ha Nguyen said that although traders were supportive of naloxone and other life-saving measures, North Richmond was not the right place for a dispenser.
“We have many pharmacies, supermarkets and other suitable locations across Victoria Street that could support the Victorian government’s naloxone program,” Nguyen said.
“North Richmond should not automatically become the location for every drug-related service. We need a more balanced approach across Victoria.”
But local advocates say Jolly’s intervention was a gross overstep.
Amanda Stone, executive officer at the Yarra Drug and Health Forum and a former Yarra mayor, said polarising and politicised views around the safe injecting room have made it difficult to engage in constructive dialogue within the community.
Yarra council withdrew its long-standing support of the safe injecting room last November, endorsing a motion that recommended the facility be moved from its current site. Jolly was previously a strong advocate for the facility, but was critical of its location during the meeting.
The state government abandoned plans for a second facility in the CBD in 2024, but remains committed to the North Richmond site.
Stone said the area had been a “hotspot for the street drug trade” for a long period, which means having adequate harm reduction measures in place locally was crucial.
“There’s a belief [that] a naloxone dispensing machine will make the problems worse. There’s no evidence for that. In fact, it will save lives and make a lot of people feel more confident about being able to deal with an overdose,” she said.
“There’s been this persistent effort to deny people who use drugs in North Richmond access to services where and when they need them. And that’s a really serious issue.”
Free naloxone is already available at multiple sites along Victoria Street and throughout North Richmond, including at local pharmacies and from the safe injecting room.
Resident Judy Ryan said it also makes sense to have a naloxone machine installed along the thoroughfare, which is both close to the safe injecting room and easily accessible by the wider public.
“It seems to me madness not to have this dispensary unit available in this community, and I just don’t understand it. I’m flabbergasted. I’m exasperated,” Ryan said.
“The council, as elected representatives, have such an important role to play … I think it’s deadly. It’s about life and death.”
The letter sent to the Health Minister was addressed solely from Jolly, but written on the letterhead of the office of the mayor and councillors. The contents of the letter were not raised at a council meeting due to time constraints, Jolly said.
Greens MP for Richmond Gabrielle de Vietri also criticised the letter to the Health Minister, comparing access to naloxone with having access to a defibrillator.
“Because of this decision, people will be at higher risk of dying of an overdose on Victoria Street. You do not make our community safer by making an overdose antidote harder to reach. This is NIMBYism at its most dangerous,” de Vietri said.
“Harm-reduction decisions should be based on evidence not political pressure. The mayor should be fighting stigma, not feeding it.”
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Gemma Grant is a city reporter at The Age. Contact her securely on Signal at gemmagrant.88Connect via email.From our partners
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