Calls for drug consumption rooms

Drug-related deaths would fall and public injecting would decrease if consumption rooms were set up, two national groups have said.

Both the Ana Liffey Drug Project and Merchants Quay Ireland — which, between them, have services in Dublin, Midlands, and Mid West — have called for the establishment of medically supervised injecting rooms (MSICs).

The call comes in the run-up to International Overdose Awareness Day, this Sunday.

As reported in the Irish Examiner last May, Ireland has the third highest number of drug-related deaths in the EU, four times the average, at 70.5 deaths per million people.

“Far more people die from overdose every year than die on the roads, but each death is just as devastating to the children, families and friends of those who die,” said Tony Duffin, director of Ana Liffey.

“MSICs are an evidence-based intervention, which can be effective in tackling serious issues around drug use — including overdose, improving access to treatment and rehabilitation and public injecting,” he said. “These are all issues in Ireland today.”

Tony Geoghegan, chief executive of MQI, said the country needed to support drug users at all stages, from street usage, through to treatment, rehabilitation and aftercare. “Innovative approaches like drug consumption rooms have a place in that continuum, along with increased investment in residential treatment beds to ensure that timely treatment is available when it is needed,” he said.