The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Safe injecting room would save city lives
Scottish health minister urges Westminster to change the law and help users
Public health minister Joe FitzPatrick has said a safe injecting room would save lives in Dundee.
Speaking after the Scottish Drugs Deaths Crisis Conference at the SEC in Glasgow yesterday, Mr FitzPatrick said he would tell the UK Government it must change the law to allow the creation of the UK’s first safe injecting room in Glasgow.
But the Home Office has already refused to allow drugs policy charity Transform to set up a mock safe injecting room – also called an overdose prevention room – at its conference in the same venue today.
People who use them have access to safe, clean equipment and medical staff are also on hand in case of an overdose. Those who use the services are also directed towards drug treatment services.
The Dundee City West MSP said safe consumption rooms are no “silver bullet” but would save lives.
Mr FitzPatrick added: “I think it is disappointing that the UK Government is not prepared to look at all the evidence, but I hope they will listen.”
“Clearly there is a difference between the way drugs laws are approached in Scotland – we took the decision a few years ago to move it from justice to health. That’s the norm across Europe.
The UK Government is a little bit out of sync.
“I’m hopeful the UK Government will agree to some legislative change, whether a permanent change or just to allow a pilot for a safe consumption room in Glasgow.
“There is likely to be good evidence this would save lives in Dundee, but the case would have to be made to the local community.”
There were 1,187 drug-related deaths in Scotland last year. Around a third of them occurred in Glasgow while Dundee also has one of the highest rates of drug-related deaths in the country.
Drug users who share injecting equipment are also blamed for an HIV outbreak in Glasgow.
Martin Powell from Transform said he estimates safe consumption rooms would save around 30 lives a year in Scotland.
“We are disappointed that the UK Government did not want us at their event but we do know there are a lot of good people from other parts of their country who will make the case,” he said.
The summit also heard from several members of Scotland’s recovery community, on how support is needed to help beat their addictions.
Jim Duffy, a former policeman from the Law Enforcement Partnership UK (Leap) said wholesale reform of the country’s drug laws is needed to change lives.
During a question and answer session, he said: “During the course of this summit, three or four people will have died in Scotland, nine of 10 across the UK.”
“The Scottish and UK governments need to realise there is a drugs industry controlled by criminals using violence and intimidation. That needs to change.”
“There is likely good evidence this would save lives in Dundee, but the case would have to be made to the local community. HEALTH MINISTER JOE FITZPATRICK