HARM NATIONAL REDUCTION HARM REDUCTION SUMMIT
SO MUCH TO TACKLE
On the eve of the National Harm Reduction Summit, Transform hosted a get-together to assess failing drug policy – and harness energy from Bristol being declared the first official city of harm reduction. DDN reports
‘ O ur drug policies continue to fail,’ said Jane Slater, CEO of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.‘ At some point we need to start looking at these things differently.’ Making our communities safer and protecting our children gave us all a common aim.
‘ My daughter was 15 and when she said she was taking drugs, I silenced her,’ said Anne- Marie Cockburn of Anyone’ s Child, the campaign group calling for honest conversations around drugs and legal regulation of the drug market.‘ She had looked up MDMA in The Lancet and was searching for advice – but it was easier for her to take drugs than find help. People like Martha end up dead because of a lack of harm reduction conversations. Prohibition didn’ t keep my daughter safe. Let’ s make drugs education as normal as ageappropriate sex education.’
The drug market is never reduced by policing and prohibition.
Bristol Drugs Project( BDP) ran the M32 youth group to provide support to children whose parents used drugs in a way that affected the family, said BDP chief executive Lydia Plant. When children grew up feeling that‘ if you tell people, you might get taken away’, telling the police or a teacher was just not an option for them. Furthermore, stigma was perpetuated by classmates knowing that your parents were doing something illegal.
Thanks to BDP being‘ willing to step forward’, Bristol had established an innovative drug-checking service, said Katie Porter of The Loop. She explained that they had had to push beyond the narrow definition of dependency in the Home Office licence as‘ the people we saw regularly were using heroin, crack, spice, benzos … Bristol evaluated [ the terms ] and said this definition doesn’ t work for drug checking’. Drug checking was now available to people regardless of the type of drug – a service that had also opened in three sites in London. People were described as‘ hard to reach’ but the Mwanzo Project was not prepared to accept this, said its director and service manager Maya Mate- Kole. The project had been set up to fill a‘ huge gap’. The arrest rate of‘ young, black minoritised boys’ was disproportionally high and many were being‘ groomed and exploited from a young age’. It was a story of drug-related violence and exploitation, where trauma and violence had become normalised.‘ We see the way the narrative plays out – children that have been adultified,’ she said and emphasised,‘ It’ s important to support young people on their journey.’ The answer had always been seen to be more policing –‘ but we haven’ t had a conversation about a different solution,’ she said.‘ We need to think creatively with a rehabilitative mindset.’ When looking at what drug policy looked like, could we see the wider landscape –‘ and are there black voices in this space?’ In partnership with Transform, they were looking at how to diversify the conversation.
Neil Woods used to buy heroin as an undercover police officer.‘ Now you’ re more likely to be buying from a child, as children dominate the market,’ he said.‘ And why are we having this situation in the UK, that we’ re the leaders of child exploitation?’ he wanted to know. With the highest prison population in Europe, we were‘ really good at catching drug dealers … it’ s always a record seizure’. But he was emphatic that the drug market was‘ never reduced by policing and prohibition’.
‘ I hope this panel discussion shows why drug policy is failing horribly,’ said Jane Slater. DDN
Following this evening get-together, The National Harm Reduction Summit was an innovative dual venue, two-day event, hosted by Bristol Drugs Project and The Hepatitis C Trust. See facing page.
12 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • OCTOBER 2026 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM