CONFERENCE
SAFER TOGETHER
O ur fourth Safer Lives conference brought together more than 200 individuals and organisations to discuss harm reduction strategies and challenges. It’ s about coming together as a sector, listening and learning from each other, and committing to action. The drug market is changing and we realise we need to step up and adapt our approaches.
Last year in England and Wales there were 5,565 drug-related deaths – the highest number since records began in 1993. Elli-Jay McNally, Turning Point’ s national harm reduction lead and conference chair, said that each one of these deaths was preventable.‘ Each person is more than a number in a yearly report. They are people who were loved,
Turning Point’ s harm reduction-focused event invited new thinking on a collaborative approach, as Clare Taylor explains
who had families and friends. People should not be dying simply because help wasn’ t available, stigma stood in the way, or policy lagged behind evidence.’
COLLABORATIVE WORK The National Harm Reduction Group was established by harm reduction leads as a platform to connect and share ideas. Deb Hussey( formerly Turning Point, now Exchange Supplies), Maddie O’ Hare( Harm Reduction International), Peter Furlong( Change Grow Live), Chris Rintoul( Cranstoun) and Jon Findlay( Waythrough) described how they came together in 2023 after a sudden spike in drugrelated deaths in Birmingham.
Around 30 deaths occurred within two months, most caused by nitazenes mixed into – or sold as – heroin without users’ knowledge. The need for progressive harm reduction strategies was clear.‘ I often feel like harm reduction is the afterthought within treatment services, said Findlay.‘ Being a part of this group has allowed me to really challenge the organisation I work with.’ The group was concerned about different messages – some inaccurate – being shared about synthetic opioids, and now focuses on joint campaigns.
One such campaign was Stayin’ Alive, which asked people to come up with a plan in case they overdose – it could be as simple as letting someone know that they’ re planning to use drugs and to check in on them afterwards. The work has not been without its challenges – such as being told by a billboard advertising company that they couldn’ t use the word‘ naloxone’ in a public-facing campaign – but through targeted resources and thrashing out ideas, they‘ try incrementally to make things a little bit better’, said O’ Hare. She added that despite‘ systemic failures’, the UK still offered more accessible treatment services than most countries in the world.
Ray Lakeman, a retired teacher from the Isle of Man, spoke movingly about losing both of his children, Jacques, 20, and Torin, 19, on the same night in 2014, after they both overdosed on MDMA bought through the dark web. His sons’ deaths were‘ completely avoidable’ – they had unknowingly taken an amount of MDMA that would have been enough for 30 people.‘ If they were going to take it, they should have known exactly what it was they were taking,’ he said, explaining that he had spent the last 11 years campaigning for drug law reform and a regulated, legal market.
SAFER DRUG CONSUMPTION Despite a 13 per cent drop last year, Scotland’ s drug death rate remained the worst in Europe. Saket Priyadarshi, associate medical director for alcohol and drug services at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, explained
Top: From left – Jon Findlay, Peter Furlong, Maddie O’ Hare, Chris Rintoul, Deb Hussey and Elli-Jay McNally
14 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • DEC 25 – JAN 26 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM