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Drug consumption rooms should be piloted in the UK

JadedJaded Posts: 2,682 Boards Guru
An Independent Working Group set up and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation concluded that well-designed and well-implemented drug consumption rooms would have an impact on some of the serious drug-related problems experienced in the UK.

The Independent Working Group included UK experts from the police, legal and health sectors. For 20 months, the group reviewed the growing body of evidence, commissioned research where data was lacking, visited drug consumption rooms in five countries and interviewed relevant witnesses.


The press release from the JRF can be found here and there is a report in the Society Guardian today, here .

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kind of begs the question of why people are taking the drugs in the first place.
  • JadedJaded Posts: 2,682 Boards Guru
    For a multitude of reasons, for enjoyment being one of them I wuld imagine, but it seems unlikely that people will stop taking them, as our anthropological history shows they have been used for a wide variety of purposes for a very long time.

    A majority of drugs professionals agree this is a sensible way of addressing the immediate problems and minimising the harm, and hopefully a way in to addressing any deeper issues. Do you not agree with this view Kentish?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I guess I meant that it kind of takes the recreation out of recreational drugs use if you have to do it under supervision.

    Of course it reduces harm, but is that the point?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Of course it reduces harm, but is that the point?

    well what other point do you suggest?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    well what other point do you suggest?
    I must confess to not having read the report, but presumably this is intended for people who have problems with overdosing and other associated health problems due to their drug use. So this doesn't seem much more than an intensive detox programme, which of course is welcome.

    But that relies on the user wanting to stop. I don't know if those who leave needles lying around in playgrounds are the same people.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kentish wrote:
    I must confess to not having read the report, but presumably this is intended for people who have problems with overdosing and other associated health problems due to their drug use. So this doesn't seem much more than an intensive detox programme, which of course is welcome.

    But that relies on the user wanting to stop. I don't know if those who leave needles lying around in playgrounds are the same people.
    nothing whatsoever to do with detox.
    it somewhere people can meet up and be supplied with clean needles and somehwere other than tescos toilet or the park ...to shoot up.
    modern version of the opium den.

    the opium den in china ...in victorian times ...helped solve the massive addiction england had inflicted on the chinese people.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i wonder if you'll be allowed to smoke fags in these places :chin:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Probably not. Always the risk of giving a junky lung cancer from passive smoking...as if the junky gives a fuck either way!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    modern version of the opium den.
    Not really, if there is a supervision element.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kentish wrote:
    Not really, if there is a supervision element.
    there was supervision in the opium dens ...to ovoid overdose and squabling.
    they served tea etc.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kentish wrote:
    I guess I meant that it kind of takes the recreation out of recreational drugs use if you have to do it under supervision.

    Of course it reduces harm, but is that the point?

    Its not for recreational drugs, you dont go to a shooting gallery to take cannabis.

    Its a safe, clean place where addicts can use where they can be looked after and given clean equipment to use. So yes, it reduces the harm and thats exactly the point of it.

    But it does beg the question, if you are willing to give addicts a safe place to inject with clean equipment, why not give them clean junk too?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Good point.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kentish wrote:
    I guess I meant that it kind of takes the recreation out of recreational drugs use if you have to do it under supervision.

    Banging up heroin or crack stops being recreational after a very short time and becomes a neccessity.
    Kentish wrote:
    Of course it reduces harm, but is that the point?

    Errrr...yes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There are few things that concern me about this.

    How many addicts will actually benefit from these rooms? I'm guessing logistics and financial resources mean not many will be set up and only a tiny tiny amount of addicts in the UK will have any access to them.

    I also wonder where these rooms will be, I can just see the news headlines now with people holding up banners complaining that one has been built down the road. I suppose they could set them up in estates that have drug problems, in which case many of the residents might be in support of them anyway but its the inner city homeless addicts that would benefit most from them.

    The idea sounds like a good one in theory though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i think the shooting galleries are a good idea. although it may not solve heroin addiction, it will protect both the users and the public.

    im tired of seeing needles on the streets or corners of building where children can see it as well. there are needles in the parks here, lyig aruond bushes where children as well as their pets wouldbe playing. imagine if curious children pick needles up and play around. build a small crack house with the needles (JA). i see needles stashed around school areas, behind churches. its just nobody wants shoooting galleries in their backyard.

    plus with the scheme, users will be assisted by proper authorities, who can genuinely help them when theyre motivated to do so, and not from other addicts who cant help themselves either.

    decrease the spread of HIV, not just among users, but also men who go to prostitutes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah but it still comes back to the point that unless they build hundreds of them, there'll not be much difference to the communities. Sure it'll help the addicts that get to use the service by keeping them a hell of a lot safer but there'll still be loads of paraphernalia lying about the place from the thousands of users who arent so lucky.

    It is a step in the right direction however...i think.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Iron Nic wrote:
    not just among users, but also men who go to prostitutes.
    What has prostitution got to due with it?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What has prostitution got to due with it?

    Some women addicts are prostitutes to pay for the drugs they use, so its not just an issue of stopping HIV (and all the others) in the drug using community.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bongbudda wrote:
    Some women addicts are prostitutes to pay for the drugs they use, so its not just an issue of stopping HIV (and all the others) in the drug using community.
    I should have the seen the connection there. In fact, I had an essay question about reducing the spread of viral disease by health education the other day. I wrote about prostitution and needle sharing, but didn't really connect the two. Damn!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I should have the seen the connection there. In fact, I had an essay question about reducing the spread of viral disease by health education the other day. I wrote about prostitution and needle sharing, but didn't really connect the two. Damn!

    The traditional view is that infections in the drug using community stay within that sub-group and if they die off, well its their own fault (this can still be seen in some countries). But pretty soon it was obvious that infections in the drug using community dont stay there. The same was the case for the gay community too when AIDS first was around.
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