QUICK FIX?

A series of tragic deaths of heroin addicts in the city has sparked calls for the creation of ‘shooting galleries’ where the drug can be safely injected, but is it just a...

Heroin addicts in Canterbury should be given “fix rooms” where they can safely inject the Class A drug, it has been claimed this week. A series of fatal overdoses in the city have sparked calls for the creation of “shooting galleries” to improve the safety of users and the wider public.

Cllr Neil Baker, the chairman of the city council’s community committee, believes such places would provide a safe and controlled environment for drug users and reduce the amount of heroin paraphernalia left in public areas.

Last month photographs were posted on social media of needles and packaging strewn on the floor of a cubicle at the Canterbury Lane toilets, where at least three addicts have already died from overdoses.

“We know heroin taking goes on so there’s an argument for saying that it should be done somewhere safe,” Cllr Baker said.

“I appreciate this is tantamount to accepting it, but on the other hand we cannot just pretend it doesn’t happen. It does.

“Whether the idea of a safe room in a controlled environment is actually suitable for Canterbury is something that needs to be discussed.”

Cllr Baker argues the idea should be put before the Canterbury Area Member Panel, the committee of the city council dedicated to issues directly connected to Canterbury.

“This would be the best place to test the idea, to give it a sounding,” he said.

Many heroin users in Canterbury are rough sleepers who use the facilities at homeless charity Catching Lives in Station Road East.

Charity trustee James Duff is broadly supportive of the idea.

“In an ideal world no one would use drugs or those using them would seek treatment,” he said.

“But if they are using them, then it makes sense for this to happen somewhere which is safe. At least then it could minimise the impact on the wider public so that it’s not happening in public places or in toilets.

“I know that places like Brighton have thought about this, but as ever with something like this the devil is in the detail.”

Edd Withers, who runs the Canterbury Residents Group on Facebook, is among the many to back the idea.

He said: “It’s time we provided legal places that addicts can go to inject safely with medical supervision, and away from the public – for everyone’s safety.

“No matter how well-funded, the council can’t man a toilet 24/7. With the budgets they have now, I’m surprised they still get cleaned at all.

“Accept addicts get drugs and use them – don’t condone that but offer them support and safety and a way out. And keep the public safe at the same time.”

Three years ago, Brighton considered creating “drug consumption rooms”, which are supervised and have sterile equipment. The plan was shelved amid fears that it was a step towards legalising hard drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine.

Last year Glasgow announced plans to open “fix rooms” for addicts after a surge in HIV infections among users.

But one expert in drug policy said the ultimate goal of such schemes should be to reduce heroin use and that those already trialled had failed to do so.

Heroin use is rife on Canterbury’s streets and is particularly prevalent among rough sleepers. Most of the users have long-established habits and inject the Class A opiate, the quickest way of getting it into their system.

To do this they usually have to find a place to first “cook up” the drug and then inject it directly into the vein.

Cooking up involves burning the powdery heroin with water in a spoon and then drawing into a syringe for injecting.

Addicts will use concealed spots around the city or public toilets. Those at Canterbury Lane behind Wilko and in Tower Way off St Peter’s Place are especially popular.

The need of some addicts for a fix is so great that they do not care if they are seen. One addict was spotted injecting into his groin in the middle of the Black Griffin Lane car park on a summer’s day last year.

The area around St Peter’s Street, St Peter’s Place and St Dunstan’s is also a particularly active drug market.

Twenty years ago heroin dealers tended to be long-time users in their 30s, 40s or even 50s who turned to supplying the drug as a way of paying for their habits.

Now dealers tend to come exclusively from the ranks of organised crime. Gangs in east and south London em-