UN hits at Government over special heroin centres

A UNITED NATIONS watchdog has reprimanded the Government for even considering the possibility of allowing addicts to legally take heroin in special centres on a trial basis.

The International Narcotics Control Board which polices UN conventions on illegal drugs wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Government expressing outrage at a report in the Irish Examiner in which the Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Noel Ahern, said he was looking at the issue.

"They were horrified that we were even thinking of going down the road of consumption rooms," said Mr Ahern yesterday. "They said we should not be even thinking of taking this direction. They said it was contrary to various UN conventions. They were very unhappy,"

Mr Ahern said last July he planned to travel to Germany to examine State-backed trials of consumption rooms places where users could inject heroin in an hygienic and supervised setting.

The rooms were set up in a bid to cut the number of drug deaths and reduce the level of street-injecting.

Mr Ahern travelled to Germany and saw at first-hand the trial projects.

"They are small pilot projects. The biggest one I went to has 10 clients, but they recommended no more than six-to-seven at any given time." He said the legal authorities had to effectively change the law to ensure that users were not arrested.

He said consumption rooms had been justified on harm-reduction grounds but said the jury was still out. There was strong opposition from other government departments and State agencies here, including the Department of Health and the gardaí.

"There were very strong objections through different government departments and agencies for the State to co-ordinate, approve or facilitate consumption rooms, which essentially involves breaking the law."

He said gardaí would be concerned about drug-dealing near such a centre.

And he pointed out that very few communities would be willing to accept such a place. "It's not under serious consideration, but I am watching developments in Europe," he said.

"It's important to keep abreast of best-practice. I'm not saying it will never happen, but I don't think it's going to happen soon."

Consumption rooms are also being tested in Switzerland, Holland, Spain and Australia.