Melbourne's drug injecting trial expands

An expansion of Melbourne's drug injecting room trial will help stop more addicts shooting up on inner-city streets, the state government says.

A new centre at North Richmond opened its doors on Sunday, more than a year into the controversial 18-month trial.

It was previously based at a local community health clinic next door but Mental Health Minister Martin Foley says the new, bigger facility with longer opening hours will help stop people shooting up on the streets.

The trial has provoked outcry from some nearby residents, including for its proximity to the Richmond West Primary School.

There have been more than 60,000 visits to the centre and nearly 3000 people have used it to inject drugs, mostly heroin, since it opened in June last year.

More than 1200 overdoses have also been safely managed, the trial's medical director Nico Clark said.

"Many of those were severe overdoses, people not breathing, completely unconscious, revived by our staff," he said.

The government says there are more security patrols and outreach services in the area amid ongoing community complaints about the trial.

Council workers are collecting drug paraphernalia including syringes from the streets twice a day.

It comes after a coroner last month revealed there had been virtually no reduction in heroin-related deaths around North Richmond in the centre's first six months of operation.

But Coroner Audrey Jamieson also said the trial was essential and six months was not enough time to judge its effect on drug-related harm in the area.