Radical drug supply scheme is essential, claim medical chiefs
SCOTLAND’S first centre to give addicts heroin on prescription is preparing to treat its first patients.
The £1.2million Enhanced Drug Treatment Service in Glasgow has attracted accusations of encouraging drug use but key players have fought hard to get the Home Office to give the necessary license for the facility.
Leaders of the initiative claim the service, which will initially treat just 20 patients a year, would be hugely complemented by bolting on a Drug Consumption Room (DCR) aimed at 600 heroin addicts.
Successive Tory home secretaries have regarded a DCR as a step too far but Glasgow’s need for such a centre has been described as the greatest in Europe, amid an HIV outbreak which is continuing to rise among addicts.
The use of open-air sites in Glasgow city centre leads to thousands of needles littering waste areas and streets.
The city’s record death rate also rose in step with Scotland, the worst nation in the recorded world, with 1187 deaths last year.
Susanne Miller, chair of Glasgow’s Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP), said: “We commissioned a public health report, Taking Away The Chaos, in 2016 and it came up with seven recommendations, which were based on clear evidence.
“Five were quickly adopted and the opening of this facility is the sixth.
“As it stands, the opening of a
BY MARK McGIVERN Chief Reporter
Drug Consumption Room is the only one we haven’t been able to deliver but we are hopeful that is something that can be achieved.”
She added: “People might question why health services are spending money providing heroin for people with addictions – the answer is, ‘We can’t afford not to’.
Miller said £45million has been invested in addiction services and that money has been ringfenced for a DCR to be opened as soon as the Home Office relents. Glasgow ADP’s medical chief Dr Saket Priyadarshi, who co-authored the report, emphasised that extensive evidence backs up heroin assisted treatment in stabilising chaotic lives and ultimately preventing overdose deaths. He said: “We are looking to help people at the hard edges – people with the most chaotic lifestyles and severe addictions who have not responded to existing treatments.” Dr Priyadarshi admitted to being frustrated that a DCR was being blocked, saying it would help them engage with the most vulnerable people.
Dr Carole Hunter, the lead pharmacist for Glasgow Addiction Services said that, far from controversial, Heroin Assisted Treatment is now used in scores of cities across the world and regarded as a mainstream therapy.
She said: “It’s ironic that Scotland used to be regarded as a world leader in harm reduction.
“Now the rest of Europe is ahead of us.”