Call to give drug users‘injectingrooms’
Merchants Quay Ireland said that "safe rooms" operating under medical supervision would reduce the number of addicts dying from heroin.
"Research indicates injecting rooms are beneficial in reducing drug-related deaths, limiting public nuisance and linking people in with treatment services," said Tony Geoghegan of Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI).
The law would have to be changed to allow such rooms to operate in Ireland, however.
Mr Geoghegan said that according to a 2002 report by the German Health Ministry, injecting rooms in that country showed some success.
"Research indicates that the main benefits of injecting rooms have been reduction of public nuisance associated with drug users congregating on the streets and other public places and improvement of health in very vulnerable and unhealthy injecting drug users."
He said injecting rooms also provided a means of engaging heroin users with treatment and support services.
The call for injecting rooms was made on day seven of MQI's Dealing with Drugs awareness campaign.
Yesterday's focus was on the role of harm reduction in dealing with drug problems. This aims to:
* Reduce the quantity of drugs being used.
* Improve the quality of the drugs.
* Promote less harmful drug use, ie smoking as opposed to injecting.
* Encourage users to avoid high-risk behaviour, such as sharing needles.
Mr Geoghegan said: "The best form of harm reduction is abstinence from drugs. However, if a person is unwilling or unable to stop using drugs, harm reduction initiatives such as needle exchange services are effective in helping the drug user to stay alive and reasonably healthy until they are in a position to make other choices about their drug use."
He said needle exchange programmes where addicts get clean needles and return old, used syringes reduce the risk of contracting infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV.
"Participation in the Merchants Quay Ireland needle exchange programme is associated with a reduction in needle sharing and other injecting risk behaviour," Mr Geoghegan said.
"It is also associated with reduced frequency of injecting and movement away from injecting drug use," he added.
