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5/26/06
An independent working group led by Dame Ruth Runciman and including police and health officials issued a report Tuesday calling for Britain to open safe injection sites for hard drug users on a trial basis. The report has been sent to the British government's Home Office, which would initiate any such moves. A House of Commons panel rejected a similar recommendation in 2002. Conducted by the influential Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the report found strong evidence that safe injection sites -- or drug consumption rooms (DCRs), as the report calls them -- save lives, reduce needle-sharing, and generally improve the well-being of injection drug users. They can also reduce public drug use and the number of discarded syringes without increasing crime or becoming foci of drug use, the report found, citing the experiences of six other European countries, as well as Australia and Canada. "While millions of drug injections have taken place in drug consumption rooms abroad, no one has died yet from an overdose. In short, lives could be saved," said Runciman in a statement Tuesday. "Setting up and evaluating drug consumption rooms would be a rational and overdue extension to UK harm reduction policies. Well-designed and well-implemented drug consumption rooms would have an impact on some of the serious drug-related problems experienced in the UK." According to the report, tens of thousands of heroin injections occur in public in Britain each month. The United Kingdom has the highest number of drug overdose deaths in Europe, with more than 1,300 reported in 2003. The report recommended that pilot DCRs be set up based on local agreements with key agencies -- and with or without the support of the central government. Although some European countries have expanded from safe injection sites to accommodate heroin and cocaine smokers, the Rowntree report recommended initially limiting the DCRs to safe injection rooms. The DCRs should be integrated with local social welfare and health services, and the results carefully evaluated to determine whether the program should be expanded. According to the report, DCRs would provide sterile syringes and other items for users who registered and brought their own drugs. Trained staff would observe and advise and be available in case of overdose, but not assist in the injection process. The report was welcomed by Martin Barnes, director of DrugScope, a leading British drug policy center. "This carefully-considered report will test the extent to which we are able to have an informed, rational and calm debate about drugs policy and reducing drug-related harms," he said. "A policy which can save lives deserves serious consideration however controversial it may seem at first. The international evidence in favor of piloting drug consumption rooms in the UK is strong and persuasive and we particularly welcome the emphasis on local agency working and engaging with local communities."
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