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A police boss is urging the UK Government to do a U-turn on their opposition to so-called drug consumption rooms where drug addicts can inject themselves safely and hygienically.
Drug Consumption Rooms have been used effectively in Switzerland, Portugal and Austria but the Government have rejected the proposal to trial them in the UK despite the fact that drug-related deaths are at an all-time high.
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, Durham Commissioner Ron Hogg and West Midlands Commissioner David Jamieson have co-signed a letter to Victoria Atkins MP, the Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, saying they are “deeply concerned” about the Government’s continued opposition to the introduction of DCRs.
They hit out after a letter from Ms Atkins’ predecessor, Sarah Newton MP, to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs claimed that DCRs were legally problematic, posed ethical issued for medical professionals and difficulties for the police.
According to the commissioners, the Government letter also quoted a report which showed that DCRs increase access to social, health and drug treatment services as well as targeting difficult, hard-to-reach drug users and provided a safer injecting environment.
The letter to Ms Atkins from the commissioners follows a visit by Mr Jones and Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg to Geneva to see at first-hand how a similar facility had also led to a decline in the illicit heroin trade.
The letter says: “International evidence also shows that drug consumption rooms do not result in higher rates of local drug-related crime and instead can reduce street disorder and encounters with the police.
Drug consumption rooms have been shown to reduce syringe sharing and litter which in turn reduces the risk of blood-borne virus infections, and they can reduce overdose fatalities and ambulance call-outs for overdose, thereby reducing pressure on our emergency services.
Evidence also suggests that drug consumption rooms save more money than they cost with evidence from Vancouver that the drug consumption room there saved over $18 million in health costs over a 10-year period.
We therefore ask that you review your decision to prevent the introduction of drug consumption rooms as an example of the government’s commitment to exploring alternative options available within the legislative framework.
If the Government was to allow a pilot site, based on a local needs assessment, to operate in the UK, we would be able to demonstrate what works locally.
We are sure, like us, you want to see a reduction in drug related deaths, a reduction in health risks, fewer open drug scenes, improved cleanliness, reduced public insecurity related to drug use and an increase in services that support some of the most marginalised and vulnerable in society.”
As a long-time advocate of drug consumption rooms, Mr Jones, a former police inspector, believes that addiction should be treated as a medical issue and not as a crime.
He said: “It's totally unacceptable that we're losing 2,500 people in the UK who are dying every year through drug-related deaths, especially when many of those deaths are preventable if only we put in simple harm reduction measures.
I worked as a police officer for more than 30 years and saw at first hand the heart-breaking damage that drugs cause to those who are addicted, their families and friends.
It's a self-destructive vicious circle. People who are addicted to drugs often steal so they can buy their next fix. They are arrested, prosecuted and sent to prison. They come out of prison still addicted and the cycle starts all over again just like a horror version of Groundhog Day.
You can't force somebody into treatment or rehabilitation until they're ready. That's the nature and the power of addiction so in the meantime we should have things in place for harm reduction to protect problematic drug users
Setting up a drug consumption room where people suffering from problematic drug use can take the drugs themselves safely and hygienically could potentially save lives and would also provide real benefits to the community.
Fewer discarded needles will ensure safer streets while more hygienic facilities will reduce the spread of disease like HIV. At the same time, the emergency services will be able to reach more quickly anybody who suffers an overdose, becomes violent while under the influence or pricks themselves accidentally.
Importantly for the community a Drug Consumption Room can reduce crime because it will free up police officers to concentrate on serious offences whilst providing an opportunity to help those taking drugs to address other issues like poverty and homelessness.
What I saw in Geneva further convinced me that drug consumption rooms would be useful in North Wales where they would give problematic users somewhere secure to go rather than having to inject in public areas and upsetting people with the state they are in. They would also be much safer as nobody has ever died in a Drug Consumption Room.”
Whilst not wanting to bring in DCRs in his own patch, and instead being a long-term advocate of Heroin Assisted Treatment, Ron Hogg believes that the law should allow PCCs who want to introduce DCRs to do so.
Mr Hogg said: “If the Government wants to save lives and improve communities it needs to sanction a pilot site for a drug consumption room in order to ascertain its effectiveness.”