Heroin safe rooms can offer huge help

Last week in Parliament we had the opportunity to discuss the potential provision of Safe Injection Rooms which would provide a safe, managed space in problem areas for heroin users to inject.

This may be controversial; however, the situation in Glasgow in particular has become a huge public health risk and I believe needs a radical approach.

This type of healthcare facility has been proven, across the world, to save lives.

In Glasgow city centre the street injecting of heroin is a major issue, associated health issues are on the rise and people who use drugs are risking their lives on a daily basis.

These drugs are often taken in alleys, hidden under bridges, on waste ground, and in dark public car parks, rather than in a safe environment.

Each and every day these people risk their lives if they overdose out of sight with no immediate help available to them.

It is a huge source of frustration to me that the Scottish Parliament is unable to pass legislation which would allow safe injection rooms to be established in Scotland.

In 2016 there were 257 drugrelated deaths within the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area. The city is also in the midst of an HIV outbreak – currently involving around 120 people.

These are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who are being let down by UK drug policy, and a UK government which refuses to look at the evidence of years of success with safe injection facilities overseas.

In 2015, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership published a report entitled ‘Taking away the chaos’ which concluded that one way to deal with public drug use is to provide a safe, managed space for people to inject.

A 2014 study into 62 drugs consumption facilities across Europe found that not a single person has never died in a drug consumption room.

The study also found that they provided improved access to, and integration between, a wide range of services such as housing, social work, welfare advice, primary care, and drugs counsellors, all under one roof.

The benefits of safe injection rooms aren’t unique to those who use drugs but to wider society too. They would reduce the risk of public injecting, drug-related litter, and would cut down on the number of people sharing equipment.

It is clear that there is cross-party support, not only in Holyrood, but at Westminster and at local government level too. The only thing standing in the way of introducing such a facility in Glasgow is the UK government.

They should look at the evidence; listen to calls from politicians, the Scottish Drugs Forum and health professionals, and do the right thing.