A working group set up to reduce the number of drug deaths has called on the Scottish Government to prescribe heroin and establish “shooting galleries” for addicts.
The National Forum on Drug Related Deaths in Scotland last week published its third annual report and urged the government which set it up to consider radical action to cut the number of drug-related fatalities in Scotland.
As well as requesting addiction services for each health board area and better co-ordination between drug and alcohol services, the report calls on the Scottish Government to reconsider its stance on prescribing heroin.
It calls for the drug naloxone, used to reverse the effects of a heroin overdose, to be made more available to addicts, particularly high-risk individuals being released from custody.
The Scottish Government has consistently refused to sanction the prescription of heroin, even though studies in England found it reduced crime and, with doctors monitoring, can help wean addicts off the drug.
The report also calls for state-sanctioned “shooting galleries” to be set up safe places for addicts to go to take the drug, where they will be given clean needles, therefore cutting out the risk of contracting such diseases as HIV or hepatitis.
It states, “The Scottish Government should respond to recent publications on the subjects of heroin prescribing and the provision of consumption rooms to allow the forum to proceed with investigating these possibilities in Scotland.”
The report was written after the number of drug deaths in Scotland reached a record high. There were 574 drug-related fatalities in 2008, up from 455 the previous year and the highest rate in Europe of those deaths, 53 were in Tayside and 37 were in Fife.
According to the forum’s report, many deaths occur when a combination of drugs-including alcohol-are ingested.UN surveyA new UN survey has revealed Scotland has some of the highest rates of drug abuse in the world. It found 4% of the adult population regularly uses cocaine while 1.5% of Scots abuse heroin three times higher than the world average.
Gareth Balmer of Dundee drugs charity Addaction said prescribing heroin and establishing consumption rooms would help reduce the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland.
He said, “Addaction believes that consideration should be given to prescribing heroin or diamorphine for people with heroin problems who are not responding to substitute prescribing treatment. For a small, hard to treat group of heroin users, heroin prescribing could help reduce drug use, blood-borne infections, drug-related death and remove the need to commit crime.
“It is unlikely that people will use street heroin on top if we get the assessment, support and prescribing right. Heroin prescribing should be used as part of a comprehensive treatment programme that includes psycho-social and practical interventions. “The goal of such treatment is to help the person realise their own recovery plan.”
Mr Balmer said consumption rooms should be used alongside treatment programmes. “We welcome the opening of heroin consumption rooms in areas where there is a significant amount of street injecting, and where there are a large number of heavy injecting heroin users,” he said.
“The experience of piloting injecting rooms, both in the UK and elsewhere in the world, has been largely positive, reducing drug litter, having a positive effect on public health, and in some cases, having a significant effect on crime.
“However, injecting rooms are only one approach, suitable for those with a significant heroin habit and not all users. They should not be seen as an alternative, but as a supplement to mainstream treatment programmes,”
A Scottish Government spokesman said, “Recommendations from the National Forum on Drug Related Deaths will be looked at by the Scottish Government as part of wider guidance on how to cut heroin use.”