Madness of heroin shelters
Drugs expert blasts injection centre proposals for junkies as ‘totally illegal’
A UNITED Nations drugs consultant last night condemned the plan for a heroin ‘shooting gallery’ in Scotland as ‘totally illegal’ – and ‘nothing short of madness’.
Dr Ian Oliver, former Grampian Police chief constable and now a world-renowned drugs expert, said he feared the scheme may be aimed at ultimately decriminalising drugs.
He said giving the Glasgow initiative the go-ahead – a decision that hinges on the backing of Lord Advocate James Wolffe, QC, – would breach the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Dr Oliver pointed to experience of similar drug-injection facilities elsewhere in the world, including Vancouver, Canada, where addicts openly inject in the street near the controversial Insite facility.
Drug deaths in the area of the Vancouver centre rose in the first few years after the clinic was set up. On Monday, councillors, NHS officials and – most controversially – police backed the injecting centre in a bid to cut record high drug-related fatalities. But the move led to claims that Scotland is now ‘on the cusp of legalising drugs’.
Dr Oliver, a UN drugs consultant, told the Mail: ‘This scheme would be totally illegal and a breach of the Misuse of Drugs Act. It has been claimed that the Lord Advocate could issue some kind of exemption but that would be an arrogant abuse of the legal situation.
‘These are schemes that tend to be backed by those who support eventual decriminalisation of all drugs but the primary obligation of any government is to minimise harm.
‘By setting up these drug-injection facilities, you are promoting drug use and you risk sending out harmful and conflicting messages to young people – those who support this scheme are extremely naïve.’
Dr Oliver, father of David Cameron’s former spin doctor Sir Craig Oliver, said the authorities in Canada had told him they were ‘overwhelmed’ by drug problems and were ‘tearing their hair out’.
He said: ‘If you go to the Vancouver project you will find people lying around in the street, injecting themselves – you’re tripping over them.
‘People use these facilities as information exchanges to find out where the best dealers are and to supplement their existing “fix”.
‘To believe that by allowing addicts to bring their own drugs to these centres and inject them on the premises that you are helping them or addressing the drug problem, is nothing short of madness.’
Glasgow will be the UK’s first city to provide the injection rooms. Addicts will not be prosecuted while using the service – and the unit could even have a crèche, laundry facilities and somewhere to tie up pet dogs.
It is aimed at halting the spread of infections among users and the number of needles and injecting paraphernalia left in public areas.
Plans for the so-called ‘fix room’ in Glasgow city centre were approved at a meeting of the city’s Integration Joint Board (IJB).
The board is the decision-making body of the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (GHSCP) between Glasgow City Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Last night, Glasgow Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins said that ‘not only is possession of heroin an offence, so too is it an offence to permit premises to be used for the supply of heroin’.
He said the UN’s international narcotics control board had suggested that ‘consumption rooms’ could be in breach of international drug control treaties.
Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said there were no plans for a nationwide rollout of the scheme and that drugs legislation remained reserved to Westminster.
But she warned against seeing the debate ‘as right or wrong or black and white’, adding: ‘We need to look much more holistically at the issues people with drug dependency face.’
Last night, a Crown Office spokesman said the Lord Advocate would take all public health and criminal implications into account.
A GHSCP spokesman said: ‘We are fully aware that the progress of the safer consumption facility is dependent on an exemption from the Misuse of Drugs Act. We have undertaken discussions with the Scottish Government and the Crown Office on this aspect of the proposal.’
‘Arrogant abuse of legal situation’