Give addicts needles in prison, says drugs minister

PRISONS should be able to provide clean needles to addicts to allow them to continue injecting while serving their sentence, the drugs minister has said.

The call from Minister of State Noel Ahern clashes with the zero tolerance approach to drugs in prison taken by his senior Government colleague, Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

It has also raised the ire of prison officers who said drugs were not acceptable outside jails and should not be tolerated inside either.

But Mr Ahern said while he supported Mr McDowell’s plans to weed out drugs through mandatory drug testing of inmates and other measures, attempts to stamp out drugs in prisons had not succeeded so far.

“There must be some way for prison authorities to control the supply and use of needles,” said Mr Ahern, who is responsible for the National Drugs Strategy.

“There may be indications from Justice that they are going to stamp out drugs in prison and they have my total support on that if they can achieve it. If they can’t, the present set-up is not satisfactory.”

Mr Ahern said research from the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) revealed “startling figures” for hepatitis C infection among inmates.

Research showed up to 90% of injecting drug users in prisons were positive for the potentially fatal liver disease and more than half shared needles in prison.

The NACD report said harm reduction programmes in prisons - such as needle exchanges - helped reduce Hepatitis C and HIV infection rates, without increasing drug use. “Sharing of needles is extremely dangerous and is building up a huge problem,” said Mr Ahern.

“If prison authorities can introduce some harm reduction methods that can help manage and reduce that it would be a good day’s work.

“If they want to test people and get drugs out of prison, great, but they haven’t been successful to date. If they can’t stamp out drugs in prisons, they need to have the same service inside as outside.”

Needle exchange programmes and sterilising equipment are already available to heroin addicts in the community.

But controversially, Mr Ahern is also open to the idea of consumption rooms - injecting centres in public places where addicts can take their fix in a safe, supervised setting.

Mr Ahern said he accepted needles were potentially dangerous weapons in prisons and that the issue was ultimately a matter for the Department of Justice and the Prison Service.

Mr McDowell is on record as saying he is totally opposed to any harm reduction policies, including the provision of syringes or sterilising fluid. “The programme for Government commits us to drug-free prisons, not drug tolerant prisons,” he told the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) conference in May. Mr McDowell is drawing up plans for mandatory drug testing.

The POA last night criticised Mr Ahern’s suggestions. Spokesman Nigel Mallen said: “To condone needle exchange programmes in prison increases the risk to prison officers and contributes to the likelihood of serious violence and injury.”