LET’ S SHARE THE PASSION!
LET’ S SHARE THE PASSION!
‘ I let everyone know when they come in the door that they only have a job because of our service users,’ said Bristol Drug Project’ s Lydia Plant, celebrating 40 years of BDP.‘ We love research, learning with people who use drugs, creating that loop,’ she said.‘ And we’ re so proud of our fantastic shared care services, pioneered by GPs in Bristol who risked people saying they should be struck off.’
She paid tribute to her predecessor, the late and much-loved Maggie Telfer –‘ a powerhouse’ who was‘ driven by the principles of harm reduction’ and set the tone for the organisation – more than 40 per cent of BDP’ s staff have lived experience.
‘ I hope we’ re around for another 40 years,’ said Plant. With a new strategy, innovation, and research, they were‘ creating the conditions needed to keep finding solutions’. BDP was growing, influencing change and wanted to be recognised as a great place to work.
‘ I feel optimistic and encouraged,’ she said.‘ This is a call to equip, support and fund the next generation of harm reductionists so we can continue to share that passion.’
Mark Napier from the Centre for Public Innovation.‘ So you go to a local authority and they don’ t really know what’ s going on with NSP because they’ ve devolved it to a third party.’ Around 13 per cent of pharmacies were active in NSP, although the level of activity was‘ not evenly distributed,’ he said –‘ a polite way to put it.’ Pharmacists were‘ paid a pittance’ to provide NSP, Hart pointed out.‘ So they have to be quite motivated, and if there’ s not a motivated and supportive commissioner, that motivation is lost.’
Two branches of Boots in central Birmingham had decided to stop NSP provision, the Hepatitis C Trust’ s Philippe Bonnet told the summit, with predictable consequences. As a result he and his colleagues had started to recruit peers to distribute needles and syringes from a van. The project began in April this year, since which time there had been nearly 950 NSP transactions and almost 300 people supported with harm reduction interventions, some of whom were now in drug treatment.‘ We’ ve even got a peer who used to be a hairdresser so we can offer free haircuts. How good is that?’ All of this was provided with a‘ nonjudgmental, listening ear’, he added.
WIDER SYSTEMS The entire team at Glasgow’ s The Thistle, the UK’ s first officially sanctioned consumption facility, had been recruited by panels that included people with lived and living experience, Saket Priyadarshi of Glasgow Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services told delegates.‘ So I’ m absolutely confident we’ ve got the right team.’ The Thistle had now established a GP service, he said,‘ and we’ ve got an infectious diseases consultant from the hospital coming in one day a week’, alongside dental services, advocacy services and more. The facility was not a silver bullet, however –‘ it’ s part of a wider system of harm reduction.’ There had been more than 16,000 injecting episodes that otherwise would have taken place in‘ streets, lanes, parks. We don’ t prevent overdoses, we manage overdoses.’ There had now been 125 overdose events, all of which had been‘ managed very carefully’, he said.
Drug use trends were changing – including increasing rates of cocaine use – and many people were choosing not to access treatment, said Mark Roberts of the Hepatitis C Trust. There were also no pharmacological treatments available for cocaine use disorder, although trials were ongoing. Most drug dependency criteria so far had been based around agents that worked on the opioid or GABA receptors and involved repetitive daily
‘ We need to be a strong voice – harm reduction shouldn’ t depend on your postcode.’
STUART SMITH, THE HEPATITIS C TRUST use, said Mike Kellegher of the Lambeth Addictions Consortium and SLaM NHS Foundation Trust.‘ The use of stimulants is different – it’ s binge use, compulsive redosing, intense cue-driven cravings,’ and more – followed by the comedown with its anxiety, agitation and dysphoria and, particularly with amphetamines, paranoia and psychotic symptoms.
‘ If we don’ t have each other, we don’ t have safe spaces.’
SHAYLA SCHLOSSENBERG, RELEASE
POSITIVE SIGNS About 100 pharmacotherapies for cocaine and other stimulants had now been evaluated, he said. Most had shown weak evidence, but‘ we’ re seeing small signals, but signals nonetheless, towards there maybe being a role for prescribing in treatment for cocaine use disorder’. The MEDications for COcaine Use Disorder( MEDCO) study had been looking at the potential benefits of combining different drugs, he added. While people had traditionally thought in terms of an opioid use disorder, alcohol use disorder or diazepam dependence, this was‘ a different way of thinking about it’, he said.‘ Single agent pharmacotherapy is not likely to work, and we’ re looking at a more plausible approach of multiple drugs, combined with recovery support to build routine stability and strengthen social connections.’ On this theme, the most important part of harm reduction was building relationships, said BDP trustee Louise Hansford.‘ We need to invest the time and energy in getting alongside
14 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2026 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM