Teen banned from swearing after abusing residents
MINISTERS are coming under increasing pressure to allow Britain’s first legal drug consumption room to be opened in the North East.
Easington MP Grahame Morris set out the proposal in the Commons for the consumption room, where addicts can take drugs without fear of arrest.
But a Home Office Minister said it would encourage the sale of illegal drugs.
Mr Morris told the House of Commons that the UK’s current approach to drugs “is not working”.
He said: “I have been out with the police on drug raids in my constituency. I have seen the effects in older industrial areas where these problems are manifesting. We need a new approach.”
And he urged the Government to consider proposals for drug consumption rooms, where people with a diagnosed drug addiction are provided with medical-grade heroin, clean equipment and facilities to safely dispose of used needles.
Mr Morris said so-called shooting galleries where people take drugs without supervision already exist, in private homes, in derelict properties, near schools and behind shops.
But he said that these affected the standard of living for the local community in a way that officiallyapproved drug consumption rooms would not.
He said: “Currently users buy drugs of unknown strength or quality and inject what is in many cases poison, with dirty or used needles, which can be discarded on the street for a child to pick up or a pet to stand on. “Without any other option, that seems to be the Government’s preferred drugs model. It is a system that funds criminality, maximises harm for users and puts children and communities at risk. “Why have I changed my mind to support drug consumption rooms? Many Members may have had the same experience that I have had. “Not a week goes by when I do not receive inquiries. Constituents send me photographs of used needles discarded in the street, at intolerable risk to public health.
“I firmly believe that consumption rooms would substantially reduce the public health risk, by closing down illicit shooting galleries and moving things to a clean, safe clinical environment away from residential areas, where needles can safely be discarded and those with addiction issues can engage with health services and move towards a drugfree life.” Mr Morris said senior police leaders in County Durham were keen to try a new approach to drugs.
But Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins made it clear the Government had no intention of allowing them to put the proposal into practice.
Mr Morris said: “In Durham, for example, the police and crime commissioner, a very experienced chief constable and all the agencies say, ‘Give this a try.’
“They believe that decriminalisation will work, because the evidence suggests that. Why does she not pilot such a scheme?”
Ms Atkins replied: “One or two police and crime commissioners may say that – I know, because they write to me regularly – but the majority of them do not share that view.
“That is not to say that we cannot have a debate about this, but let us please not pretend that that is the view of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.”
She added: “We have run pilot heroin-assisted treatment programmes, where heroin users are put into an intensive support programme through their GPs or other medical professionals.
“They are prescribed diamorphine as part of an intensive programme of action.
“That is very different from drug consumption rooms, which support the illicit drug market.” AN abusive teenager has been banned from swearing in public.
The 15-year-old boy has been handed a civil injunction after police in Gateshead received a spate of reports of intimidating behaviour.
Residents on the Beacon Lough estate had made numerous complaints about a large group of young people intimidating them.
Vulnerable members of the community reported being verbally abused, with the teenager being one of the group’s ringleaders.
Officers from Gateshead’s neighbourhood policing team spoke to his parents and warned him about the impact of his behaviour.
However, the teenager continued to be abusive to members of the public and this month he was handed an anti-social behaviour injunction.
The civil order means he will now have to engage with the Jigsaw project, a diversionary programme aiming to keep children out of trouble.
He has also been made subject to a strict curfew while being banned from entering the area of shops around Sundew Road.
The order also prevents him from using “abusive, insulting, intimidating or threatening language” around other members of the public.
Neighbourhood Inspector Mick Robson, of Northumbria Police, said if the teen breaches the order then he could find himself in front of the criminal court.
He said: “We are always doing work around anti-social behaviour as we recognise the impact it has on members of the local community.
“For many vulnerable residents it can be really intimidating to come out of your home and be confronted with big groups of people who are being intimidating and abusive.
“Over the summer we knew that there were certain groups of people who were causing real issues around the Beacon Lough estate.
“This teenager was identified as someone who was at the forefront of that and we have been engaging with him and his family for some time.
“It is not always appropriate to take criminal action, particularly with children, and so civil injunctions can be the most effective way to tackle anti-social behaviour.”
I have seen the effects in older industrial areas where these problems are manifesting.