A mock drug injection room has been displayed in Bristol, set up by Transform Drug Policy Foundation as part of a conference discussing drug policy and reform.
The mock-facility showcases a hygienic place where people to inject drugs with clean needles. Staff would have access to Naloxone, an overdose treatment used to counter the effects of opioids, as well as a resuscitation kit if the rooms were to be implemented.
Transform Drug Policy Foundation said that although this display is the first in the UK, the rooms are actually in use in eight European countries.
Martin Powell, of Transform Drug Policy Foundation, argues these rooms would have “massive benefits for the individuals” since “no-one has ever died of an overdose in one of the rooms despite millions of injections over the year”.
If implemented in the UK, these facilities would lead to a potential decrease in drug use as individuals would “engage with staff at the facility about treatment options”, Powell said.
“This is emphatically not about what people would view as recreational drug use. This is a last-chance saloon, it is not something that is going to encourage in any way people to take drugs in the first place”.
Transform Drug Policy Foundation wants to set up drug consumption rooms in locations with a “major street injecting issue”.
The Home Office said there are no plans in place to introduce drug consumption rooms in the UK.
Transform Drug Policy Foundation has partnered up with the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England to host Bristol: Take Drugs Seriously.