The Government has rejected calls to introduce officially sanctioned rooms for drug addicts to inject themselves.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) had claimed that ‘drug consumption rooms’, or DCRs, could prevent drug deaths.
But the Government rejects this claim and has said it has “no plans” to legislate for them.
Recovery
Abstinence from all drugs is the only way to begin recovery.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Our policy remains the same and we are not suggesting local authorities introduce DCRs.”
Tommy Cairns, a former addict from Halifax in West Yorkshire, said: “Whoever came up with the idea has never been addicted to drugs. I used to take six bags of heroin a day, I got imprisoned for four and a half years for dealing, and let me tell you, a consumption room wouldn’t have helped me.
“Abstinence from all drugs is the only way to begin recovery.”
‘Extraordinary’
Earlier this year, a senior police officer was panned by critics after he claimed that drug addicts should be allowed to take free heroin.
Mike Barton, Chief Constable of Durham Police, told the Mail on Sunday of his intentions to use police funding to provide the Class A drug to addicts twice a day in a supervised ‘shooting gallery’.
Neil McKeganey, of the Centre for Substance Use Research, described the suggestion of police funds being used in this way as “extraordinary”.
“Once you set up a centre like this, it will attract addicts and they will remain dependent on heroin, undermining services committed to getting people off drugs”.