UK -Drug rooms a 'back door' to legalisation, says think-tank

edgarshade

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 31, 2010
Messages
1,954
Location
UK
Telegraph

By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent
12:02PM BST 18 Apr 2013

With reader comments

Kathy Gyngell, who founded the campaign group Full Time Mothers, criticised a new report suggesting the use of official drug consumption rooms - known as "shooting galleries".

Researchers, including Tony Blair's former drugs tsar Mike Trace, suggested Brighton could pilot the use of drug rooms to help cut deaths from overdoses and other problems.

Brighton has a high level of druge misuse, with more than 2,000 people thought to have a problem with use of heroin or cocaine.

A 10-strong panel of experts on the Independent Drugs Commission for Brighton and Hove said the idea could help "minimise the harm that drugs cause the city."

Under the scheme, already used in some areas of Canada, Australia and Germany, addicts would be supervised by nurses while injecting drugs without fear of arrest.

More...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...ack-door-to-legalisation-says-think-tank.html
 
Are these places so rare?

I dunno, we've had one for yeeears in Montreal. Street addicts use em too, which is one of the communities who should the most.
 
Are these places so rare?

I dunno, we've had one for yeeears in Montreal. Street addicts use em too, which is one of the communities who should the most.

Huh?

So there's been an InSite operating in Montreal for several years now?

Edit - I was reading about InSite and got the following info from their official website, and it made my day:

"Although there have been 1418 overdoses at InSite between 2004 and 2010, staff were able to successfully intervene each time. There has never been a fatality at InSite since opening. In fact, research shows that since InSite opened, overdoses in the vicinity of the site have decreased by 35% - compared to a 9% decrease in the city overall."
 
Last edited:
If it's a back door to legalization, then why are drugs still illegal here in Aus, in Canada and in most of Europe? :(
 
Huh?

So there's been an InSite operating in Montreal for several years now?

Edit - I was reading about InSite and got the following info from their official website, and it made my day:

"Although there have been 1418 overdoses at InSite between 2004 and 2010, staff were able to successfully intervene each time. There has never been a fatality at InSite since opening. In fact, research shows that since InSite opened, overdoses in the vicinity of the site have decreased by 35% - compared to a 9% decrease in the city overall."

It's not called insite, it's called Cactus, but yes.
 
In any other realm of experience, we help people who are sick, addicted, suffering etc. But when it comes to drug addicts, we act like they don't deserve help, and if we do help them it "sends the wrong message". Many humans have addictive personalities, and drugs is no exception. Doesn't mean we don't help them.
 
It's been working well in Vancouver, so well that the Canadian Supreme Court shot down the Conservatives' attempt to end the program on the grounds that it would create a clear and real health danger to the community.

Shooting galleries are one of the only ways to outwardly prevent the war on drugs from claiming more victims via accidental overdose.
 
I think that there is a huge step from having a shooting gallery and making heroin legal.
That is one giant step that I just cannot imagine happening.
 
^ Technically is it legal (available as a prescription) in about a half dozen EU countries. Pure, white as can be diacetylmorphine hydrochloride.

And I hope that number increases, although I expect the US will stubbornly cling to their current laws.
 
Top