Norfolk County Councillor calls for safe drug consumption rooms in the county

Photo: Pexels

A Labour County Councillor has called for ‘safe drug consumption rooms’ at today’s Norfolk County Council meeting (18th November).

Cllr Brenda Jones told the People and Communities Select Committee that she thought safe consumption spaces for people with drug addictions was a “no brainer”.

She continued: “it makes my blood boil really that we seem to be getting nowhere” referring to the problem of drug misuse in the county.

Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) are spaces where users can consume their drugs in professionally supervised healthcare facilities therefore reducing the risk of overdoses and disease transmission through unhygienic injecting.

The call comes as recent figures show that there are around 4,000 to 5,000 opiate and/or crack users in the county. Around 51% of these users won’t be in treatment, slightly lower than the national average.

Cllr Jones went on to say: “I think one of the things that never comes up is the reasons why people use opiates and take drugs.”

“It’s because of poverty… deprivation… homeless[ness]… and until I think we are able to tackle some of [these] problems in society… I think it’s going to be quite hard [to combat drug misuse].

However, Diane Steiner, the Norfolk County Council Officer present at the meeting, was keen to point out that there is currently “no legislative foundation” for these facilities and “so any workers or users involved [with DCRs] are at legal risk.”

She said: “The Association of Directors of Public Health and other bodies have recommended that the government look to pilot consumption rooms so that we can develop the evidence base locally.”

Drug consumption rooms already exist in several other European countries (with around 90 of them as of 2019), but they still remain highly controversial and their effectiveness is much disputed.

A review carried out in 2017 found that DCRs contributed to both decreasing drug-related harm and consumption in public spaces. They have also been found to be effective at facilitating access to drug addiction treatment programmes.

The cost of illegal drugs in the UK is estimated to be over £19 billion annually and 4,895 people lost their lives in England and Wales in 2021 due to drug-poisoning.

The UK government has previously dismissed the idea of Drug Consumption Rooms, partly due to a lack of evidence. However, last year they launched their 10-year drug strategy which they claim will cut crime and save lives.