Drug shooting galleries should be ‘given a try’ in Northern Ireland, the Province’s Justice Minister has said.
Alliance MLA Naomi Long said she is ready to “raise the issue” of drug consumption rooms with the Executive and UK Government.
The Alliance party has repeatedly called for a UK-wide change in the law to allow the opening of facilities where addicts can inject illegals drugs without fear of arrest.
Pilot project
The Justice Minister seized on the opportunity to promote drug consumption rooms during a visit to The People’s Kitchen in Belfast, a charity working with homeless people.
While Long admitted that her role is “to uphold the law as it currently stands and that is the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971”, she admitted: “I am happy to raise the issue of safer injecting facilities, I think we need to at least try this”.
If she can “get agreement around the Executive table”, she said she would explore with the Home Office “whether or not there are opportunities even to pilot something like this in Northern Ireland”.
Harm reduction
Earlier this month, Alliance Health spokesman Danny Donnelly MLA claimed that a recent rise in drug-related deaths required “a wider Harm Reduction strategy”, including “supervised harm reduction initiatives”.
According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), there were 169 drug-related deaths registered in 2023, a 47 per cent increase on the total registered in 2013.
NISRA data showed that the 25 to 34 age group had the highest drug-related mortality rate in 2023, at 21.6 deaths per 100,000 people. Over 60 per cent of deaths caused by drug use were linked to opioids such as heroin and methadone.
Last December, the Belfast Telegraph reported that between 2019 and 2024 more than 13,000 convictions and police cautions were recorded for possession of Class B drugs, such as cannabis and ketamine.
‘Anti-prohibition’
Lobby group ‘Free the Night’ recently told Stormont’s Committee for the Economy that nightclubs should be allowed to provide ‘safe places’ for people to take illegal drugs.
Co-founder Boyd Sleator told MLAs that Free the Night adopted an “anti-prohibition” approach to illegal drugs, claiming that “prohibition causes issues”.
But DUP Committee member Jonathan Buckley MLA raised “huge concerns” about the negative impacts of “large groups of people” in music venues, including a “rise in antisocial behaviour”, pressures on policing, and problems with drug taking.
In January, the UK’s first drug consumption room opened in Glasgow. The Thistle, a Scottish Government-funded facility, is open seven days a week and has effectively been declared a ‘prosecution-free drug zone’ by the Lord Advocate.
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