Drugs: Misuse

(asked on 11th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of drug consumption rooms on tackling (a) HIV infection rates and (b) drug-related deaths.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 3rd September 2018

The Government has no plans to introduce drug consumption rooms (DCRs). We are not prepared to sanction or condone activity that promotes the illicit drugs trade and the harms that trade causes to individuals and communities.

The Government’s report, Drugs: International Comparators (2014), notes that DCRs have emerged in some countries as a response to public health risks associated with open drug scenes, most often to address acute problems specific to a local area. There is some evidence for their effectiveness in reducing health risks for drug users in those particular contexts, however the UK does not experience public drug taking on the same scale.

DCRs are controversial and there remain legal and ethical issues for agencies involved. Furthermore, there is no legal framework for the provision of DCRs in the UK.

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