Government may set up ‘drug rooms’ for addicts

THE Government is considering providing supervised injection facilities for drug addicts to get heroin junkies off the streets.

Minister for Drugs Strategy Noel Ahern is going to Germany in the autumn to see how drug consumption rooms operate there, with a view to recommending their usage on an experimental basis here.

The possible liberalisation of the drugs regime in this manner would prove highly controversial, despite the furore over addicts shooting up unhindered on city centre streets in broad daylight.

In an interview with The Irish Examiner, Junior Minister Ahern the Taoiseach's brother is adamant that if he takes this line then there has to be a payback for society, and that he would expect addicts to make efforts to reform.

"If I was to go down that liberal route and have consumption rooms I would like to temper it with something in return for society, perhaps with a special squad of gardaí to hustle and harry them and get them off the city streets," he said.

"These facilities are very much for the chaotic sort of person but you expect them to make an effort to stabilise."

Consumption rooms reduce the risk of overdoses, and the drugs are usually tested to ensure they have not been watered down or contaminated.

But the minister is not in favour of the State providing heroin to addicts, and questions the message this would send out across Europe.

"That might be a bridge too far. You have got to watch the message and how you sell it," he said.

Although the minister contests a UN report that says Ireland has the joint fifth highest use of heroin in Europe, he admits that drug addicts loitering on the streets are intimidating.

Currently, facilities for hygienic and supervised drug use are provided by the authorities in a number of large cities in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Australia, while several other European countries and Canada are thinking about introducing the rooms.

As Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ahern is responsible for the National Drugs Strategy.

Like his predecessor in this portfolio, Eoin Ryan, he does not believe small-scale cannabis users should be prosecuted, but he goes further to say that there is no point in enforcing the law against heroin addicts.

"It is all about giving the person an even break. There is no point in grabbing them and throwing them into jail. That doesn't solve anything. The resources should be concentrated to going after the pushers and the dealers and the real criminals," he said.

According to the EU Drugs Agency, the rooms are defined as facilities that enable the consumption of pre-obtained drugs in an anxiety- and stress-free atmosphere, under hygienic and low-risk conditions.

Consumption rooms reduce the public health and public order problems associated with drug use, improve access to and uptake of health and other welfare services, and lessen the risks of overdose and of blood-borne virus transmission, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction says.