Expert weigh in on the issue for “fix rooms”
An expert believes “there is precedent” for drug consumption rooms in Glasgow.
140 people in Glasgow have been diagnosed with HIV in the last month, as the battle for drug consumption rooms rage on.
MPs have been recommended the drug policy should be amended or devolved to Scotland by NHS Scotland, Addaction and the Glasgow Drug and Alcohol Partnership.
The Home Office remains defiantly against the ‘fix rooms’ as by green-lighting the rooms, the Home Office would be allowing illegal Class A drugs to legally be taken.
Expert Dr Andrew McAuley, a senior epidemiologist, points out with current needle exchange service, there is already precedent for a drug consumption room.
He said: “If you’re going to give someone clean equipment to inject drugs, why not give them a clean environment?
“Glasgow is the perfect location and has all of the evidence lined up to open one up. In fact, Glasgow case is the most compelling case than others.
“Glasgow has a high drug death rate, it has a HIV outbreak which is the largest in the UK for over thirty years, and it’s experienced other infectious diseases among drug injectors in recent years, anthrax, and the largest botulism outbreak recorded in Europe in 2015.
“These are severe circumstances and a consumption room is a very logical, evidence-based response that you would want to do. The fact the UK Government is against this measure says something.”
Glasgow has seen a ‘ten-fold increase’ in HIV among the drug injecting community, the highest in thirty years, believed to be spread through shared needles.
Currently needle exchange services have proven the most effective in ensuring the virus does not spread. However with 140 people reported to have been diagnosed last month, radical measures are needed and fast.
David Lindell, the chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum believes there is a political consensus in Scotland for ‘radical change’.
Lindell said: “The evidence shows that the best way to protect people with a drug problem from death is being in treatment.
“If UK laws allow us to follow the evidence and reduce drug harms, including drug deaths, we should do so now. If UK laws obstruct us from following the evidence, we should seek devolution.”
The battle for devolved drug policy currently sits on NHS Scotland’s recommendation to ‘make necessary changes’ to the Misuse of Drug’s Act 1971.
This would enable Scottish Government to ‘pursue their public health approach to drugs policy’.
Charity Addiction said: “Scotland is prevented from introducing a completely unique approach to drug misuse due to UK-wide drug legislation, such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.”
Picture credit: PA
