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Drug consumption rooms should be piloted in the UK
Jaded
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 .
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 .
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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?
Of course it reduces harm, but is that the point?
well what other point do you suggest?
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.
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.
they served tea etc.
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?
Banging up heroin or crack stops being recreational after a very short time and becomes a neccessity.
Errrr...yes.
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.
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.
It is a step in the right direction however...i think.
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.
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.