Mixed reaction to injecting rooms

Gardaí face huge challenges in policing supervised injecting centres, and legal issues need to be “teased out” before they are introduced, a senior officer has said.

Chief Superintendent Frances Clerkin said that if something can be done to assist drug users leading difficult lives “we should do it”.

In one of the first public Garda pronouncements on the controversial service —which is now government policy — Chief Supt Clerkin said research was not clear if drug-related crime would increase or decrease with injecting centres.