What would persuade a city to accept a drug consumption room ? Natalie Davies examines the argument
‘ Drug consumption rooms are typically aimed at socially excluded drug users who would otherwise be injecting in public places or unsafe domestic settings . This includes sex workers , homeless people , and those who have never been in treatment .’
Harm reduction
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What would persuade a city to accept a drug consumption room ? Natalie Davies examines the argument
GLASGOW could become the site of the UK ’ s first drug consumption room ( DDN , November 2016 , page 4 ) in response to visible public injecting and a spike in HIV infections in the city . Brighton floated the idea in 2014 , but despite 50 cities in mainland Europe having opened rooms , concluded that the time was not right . So what lay behind their decision , and how could the story end differently in Glasgow ?
Brighton was known for having one of the UK ’ s highest rates of drug-related deaths , prompting its Independent Drugs Commission to recommend in April 2013 that ‘ where it is not possible to stop users from taking risks , it is better that they have access to safe , clean premises , rather than administer drugs on the streets or in residential settings ’. A working group was set up to investigate the feasibility , but a year later delivered their verdict that it was not a priority .
As well as other options to meet the needs of drug users and the wider community , there were , they felt , inconsistencies between drug consumption rooms and the prevailing policies of enforcement and abstinencebased recovery .
One critical issue for the group was whether a drug consumption room could operate legally in the UK , and if so , what would be required . The UK Misuse of Drugs Act makes it illegal to allow drug dealing or production on your premises , but when it comes to using drugs , only the smoking of cannabis or opium must be prevented – premises owners do not contravene the act by allowing the possession or injecting of controlled drugs like heroin or cocaine .
Yet , based on statements from Sussex Police ( a key stakeholder ), the Home Office , and the Association of Chief Police Officers ( ACPO ), the working group determined that drug consumption rooms were ‘ unlawful ’. The fact that the room ’ s potential users would be breaking the law by possessing controlled drugs was somehow conflated with the legality of the
rooms themselves .
Sussex Police said officers could use their discretion , but had ‘ fundamental concerns ’. Deploying the pejorative term ‘ shooting galleries ’, ACPO feared such facilities could ‘ impact on local communities as a whole , attracting drug users to one area and also create a hotspot for associated criminality and antisocial behaviour ’. Though understandable , ‘ hotspot ’ fears have invariably been contradicted by the evidence ; most consumption-room users live locally .
Without a ‘ local accord ’ between police and other stakeholders , the proposal failed the test of feasibility . Resistance was attributed partly to a ‘ shift in focus for substance misuse services from harm reduction to recovery [ which placed …] a greater emphasis on abstinence ’. It was unclear whether stakeholders were themselves aligned with the values of abstinencebased recovery , or whether the policy and funding climate was forcing their hand .
Brighton ’ s local paper The Argus reported that weeks after the feasibility study was launched , several stakeholders spoke out against drug consumption rooms , including Andy Winter , chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust , who wanted to see ‘ something far more positive [ done ] with addiction and recovery ’. Frustrated at what he considered a ‘ distraction ’ from ‘ recovery , treatment and abstinence ’, he resolved to ‘ oppose any further waste of public funds , time and effort on exploring [ their ] feasibility ’.
According to the final report of the Independent Drugs Commission in May 2014 , the working group concluded that drug consumption rooms would have ‘ little impact on the types of factors contributing to deaths in the city ’. While some injectors could benefit , ‘ the overall need for the local community ’ did not warrant this new type of service – particularly as ‘ the improvement in the number of drug related deaths [ in Brighton ] since 2009 suggested that the current strategies [ were ] having an impact ’. Yet there was little appreciation that effective mainstream strategies may be inaccessible to people who would use drug consumption rooms , leaving a vulnerable cohort .
Drug consumption rooms are typically aimed at socially excluded drug users who would otherwise be injecting in public places or unsafe domestic settings . This includes sex workers , homeless people , and those who have never been in treatment . The bubble of acceptance within the four walls of a drug consumption room not only supports users to inject safely , but provides a link to vital health and social care services , including addiction treatment .
Admittedly , this acceptance of drug-taking is not an easy message to sell , and even areas with flourishing needle exchange and naloxone programmes would probably consider drug consumption rooms a ‘ big leap ’. But what many struggle to understand is how consumption rooms can provoke more controversy than people dying from preventable fatal overdoses .
Drug consumption rooms may not be the answer to addiction , but they are a humane solution to public injecting . In the end , the decision about whether to introduce drug consumption rooms in Glasgow may come down to how the debate is framed – the extent to which local stakeholders are looking at the opportunities of extending harm reduction among vulnerable , marginalised , and socially excluded injectors . If , as in Brighton , they view them through the lenses of enforcement and recovery , the project could stop before it has started , and the human cost of public injecting will continue to stack up .
Full story and citations at : http :// findings . org . uk / PHP / dl . php ? file = hot _ rooms . hot & s = dd
Natalie Davies is assistant editor at Drug and Alcohol Findings , http :// findings . org . uk
‘ Drug consumption rooms are typically aimed at socially excluded drug users who would otherwise be injecting in public places or unsafe domestic settings . This includes sex workers , homeless people , and those who have never been in treatment .’
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