Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has changed his mind about supporting a safe injecting room trial in inner Melbourne.

The Government has announced a two-year trial of a centre at in North Richmond, which has been a heroin (and overdose) hotspot for decades.

The state coroner called for a safe injecting room trial in its report into the deaths of 34 from heroin overdoses in a four block are during a 12-month period.

The harm-minimisation plan will be coupled with tougher penalties for drug traffickers.

North Richmond Community Health - where a million syringes are dispensed every month – will host the centre.

“There can be no rehabilitation if you are dead,” Mr Andrews said.

“If you are lying in a laneway in a gutter with a syringe that you got through the needle and syringe exchange program just here, there can be no pathway to treatment for you.

“If, however, you can be supervised, if you can get, in the event you need, the urgent health care that saves lives… that surely, on any measure, is a better outcome than seeing that death toll go up and up.”

The trail will require new legislation to give the centre legal amnesty.

The centre will not provide illegal drugs and only be available to adults.

The legislation will include an option to extend the trial for three years.

It is part of a broader $87 million drug rehabilitation plan, which will also pay for 100 more residential rehabilitation beds.

The announcement is considered a backflip by some, as the Premier had previously resisted calls for an injecting room.

He said the change in policy was needed to tackle the skyrocketing rate of overdose.

Victoria saw 190 heroin deaths last year.

“We have the highest heroin overdose death toll since 2000, circumstances are different,” he said.

“To stubbornly continue with a policy that's just not working, then that's the wrong thing to do when there is an alternative, one that can save lives.

“I think leadership is about being prepared to say a different way is worth trialling.”

The Government expects the centre will be up and running within six months, operating seven days a week to assist hundreds of people every month.

A similar centre at King's Cross in Sydney has seen 6,000 serious overdoses but no deaths.

Ambulance Victoria expects the injecting room will reduce its burden and help free up paramedics for other emergencies.

The room will be located next to West Richmond Primary School, which supports the idea as it has previously seen people overdosing on its grounds.

The changes include a reduction in the punishable quantity for heroin trafficking charges, down from 250g to 50g.

Reports say the legislation for the bill has enough support to pass the Upper House, though the state’s Opposition does not support it.

Near the end of the Premier's press conference in Richmond this week, paramedics there for the announcement rush to attend to a suspected overdose just 50 metres down the road.