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英國首個非法藥物消費室獲得批准

英國首個非法藥物消費室獲得批准

詹姆斯·庫克 / 9 27 / BBC 新聞

圖片說明,葡萄牙的消費室體現了該國對非法藥物毒品「減少危害」的態度

 

英國首個官方的海洛因和可卡因等非法藥物消費室已獲得格拉斯哥當局的批准。

該設施得到了蘇格蘭政府的支持,作為解決該國藥物死亡危機的一種方式。

該試點計畫將設在格拉斯哥東端的一個健康中心。

使用者將在訓練有素的衛生專業人員的監督下自行使用藥物。

格拉斯哥的一體化聯合委員會匯集了國民醫療服務體系和議會官員,在周三上午的線上會議上批准了這些計畫。

該項目由蘇格蘭政府資助,預計將於明年夏天開業,最初三年將耗資 700 萬英鎊。

格拉斯哥酒精和藥物康復服務副醫療主任 Saket Priyadarshi 博士在會議上表示,該計畫將「減少對個人與藥物相關的傷害」,並為他們提供「治療、照護和康復的機會」。

圖片說明,Saket Priyadarshi 博士是格拉斯哥酒精和藥物康後服務的醫療主任

 

英國國民醫療服務體系(NHS)和格拉斯哥市議會的官員編寫的一份關於該設施的報告稱,該設施旨在解決「格拉斯哥市中心公共場所定期有約 400 500 人注射非法藥物」的問題。

這個想法已經討論了多年,但在蘇格蘭高級法律官員表示使用者不會因在該設施內持有非法毒品而受到起訴後,現在可以繼續進行。

本月早些時候,總檢察長 Dorothy Bain KC 向檢察官發布的指導意見指出,在此類案件中提起訴訟「不符合公共利益」。

格拉斯哥的非法藥物消費室將設在該市東端的亨特街,旁邊有一家診所,目前有 23 名長期藥癮者正在接受海洛因藥物處方。

33 歲的傑德 (Jade) 是東區的一名藥癮者,他形容這是一個「絕妙的主意」,將「帶來巨大的改變」。

 

她告訴英國廣播公司新聞,她曾使用海洛因和可卡因來消除過去的創傷,並目睹了許多親人因毒癮而死亡。

「我的前伴侶死於毒品。我的父親去世了。他是個癮君子。我的姐姐去世了。我的許多朋友都去世了」,她說。

使用者將能夠在格拉斯哥的設施中注射非法藥物,但最初計畫中刪除了一個可以吸食非法物質的房間的提議。

Priyadarshi 博士表示,這是因為蘇格蘭反吸菸立法帶來的法律問題以及通風和過濾方面的技術挑戰。

「也許我們可以在前進的過程中適時添加一些內容,」他說。

影片說明,格拉斯哥這條佈滿針頭的小巷是我注射毒品的地方

 

該設施所在卡爾頓區的工黨議員塞西莉亞·奧隆 (Cecilia O’Lone) 在理事會會議上表示,社區對這些計畫有「一些擔憂」。

「如果我們不與社區一起行動,它就會面臨失敗,因為它可能會受到污名化,」她在會議上說。

格拉斯哥健康與社會關懷合作夥伴關係首席官蘇珊娜·米勒 (Susanne Millar) 表示,參與將立即開始,初步社區會議定於週四舉行。

她承諾「有明確的機制來快速解決可能出現的任何問題」。

「沒有單一的答案」

非法藥物消費室是蘇格蘭政府為應對危機而採取的更廣泛舉措的一部分,這場危機的人均死亡人數比歐洲其他任何地方都多。

毒品死亡人數在 2020 年達到峰值,達到 1,339 人,然後在 2021 年略有下降,然後在 2022 年下降約五分之一,達到 1,051 人。

從那時起,初步數據顯示,它們已經開始再次攀升。

消費室計畫得到了蘇格蘭民族黨、工黨和自由民主黨政治家的支持,但英國內政部堅稱「沒有安全的方法來使用非法藥物」。

英國慈善機構復甦之聲執行長安妮瑪麗沃德也持有同樣的立場,該機構幫助起草了蘇格蘭保守黨去年在荷里路德提出的復甦權法案。

沃德女士表示,蘇格蘭民族黨呼籲威斯敏斯特修改 1971 年《濫用毒品法》,將持有毒品除罪化,這是在玩弄政治,但英國政府拒絕了這項舉措。

相反地,她說,蘇格蘭政府不僅應該關注減少傷害,還應該關注治療、預防、勸阻和讓使用者重新融入社會。

她說:「不幸的是,他們正在引發一場關於獨立的憲法辯論,而這是以人們的生命做為代價的」。

但蘇格蘭民族黨部長們否認事實如此。

圖片來源,格拉斯哥市議會。圖片說明,該設施的設計草案已提交審議

 

上週,毒品和酒精政策部長埃琳娜·惠特姆 (Elena Whitham) 向蘇格蘭議會表示,「向毒品宣戰的戰爭已經結束。沒有人獲勝,主要受害者不是有組織的犯罪分子,而是最貧窮和最弱勢的群體」。

「我們知道,蘇格蘭作為一個國家需要做一些不同的事情,在法律允許的範圍內,蘇格蘭警察局將成為其中的一部分,合作開展工作」,蘇格蘭警務處地方警務負責人馬爾科姆·格雷厄姆 (Dep Ch Con Malcolm Graham) 說道。

他堅稱警方將繼續打擊毒販,但補充說道供應只是問題的一部分。

格雷厄姆先生說:「我們需要解決需求,也需要解決傷害」。他補充道:「我們國家所面臨的這個問題沒有單一的答案」。

蘇格蘭保守黨衛生發言人桑德什·古爾哈恩博士表示,他很高興該試點被視為解決藥物濫用死亡問題的一系列措施,但他補充說,該黨「對於非法藥物消費室在現實中的有效性仍持嚴重保留態度」。

議會議員表示,該設施不應被視為「解決這場危機的靈丹妙藥」。

他呼籲政府支持保守黨康復權法案,該法案將在法律中規定那些與藥癮作鬥爭的人能獲得治療的機會。

 

 

UK’s first consumption room for illegal drugs given go-ahead

James Cook / 27 September / BBC News

Image caption, Portugal’s consumption rooms embody the country’s ‘harm reduction’ approach to drugs

 

The UK’s first official consumption room for illegal drugs including heroin and cocaine has been approved by authorities in Glasgow.

The facility is backed by the Scottish government as a way to tackle the country’s drugs deaths crisis.

The pilot scheme will be based at a health centre in the east end of Glasgow.

It will see users take their own drugs under the supervision of trained health professionals.

Glasgow’s Integration Joint Board, which brings together NHS and council officials, ratified the plans at an online meeting on Wednesday morning.

It is hoped the project, funded by the Scottish government, will be opened by next summer – and will run for an initial three years at a total cost of £7m.

Dr Saket Priyadarshi, associate medical director of Glasgow alcohol and drug recovery services, told the gathering the project would “reduce drug-related harms” for individuals as well as providing them with “opportunities for treatment, care and recovery”.

Image caption,Dr Saket Priyadarshi is medical director of Glasgow alcohol and drug recovery services

 

A report on the facility prepared by officials from the NHS and Glasgow City Council said it aimed to tackle the problem of “approximately 400 to 500 people injecting drugs in public places in Glasgow city centre on a regular basis”.

The idea has been discussed for years but it is able to go ahead now after Scotland’s senior law officer said users would not be prosecuted for possessing illegal drugs while at the facility.

The guidance issued to prosecutors by Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC earlier this month stated that it would “not be in the public interest” to bring proceedings in such cases.

The Glasgow consumption room would be based at Hunter Street in the east end of the city alongside a clinic where 23 long-term drug users are currently prescribed pharmaceutical heroin.

Jade, 33, a drug user in the east end described it as a “brilliant idea” which would “make a massive, massive difference”.

 

She told BBC News that she had used heroin and cocaine to block out trauma from her past and had witnessed many loved ones dying as a result of drug addiction.

“My ex-partner died of drugs. My dad died. He was an addict. My sister passed away. A lot of my friends have passed away,” she said.

Users will be able to inject drugs at the Glasgow facility but a proposal for a room where they can smoke illegal substances has been removed from the original plans.

Dr Priyadarshi said that was because of the legal issues posed by Scottish anti-smoking legislation as well as technical challenges with ventilation and filtration.

“Maybe it’s something we can add to in due course as we move forward,” he said.

Media caption, This needle-strewn alley in Glasgow is where I inject drugs

 

Cecilia O’Lone, Labour councillor for the Calton ward where the facility is located, told the board meeting that there was “some concern” in the community about the plans.

“If we don’t take the community with us, it’s leaving it open to fail because it can be stigmatised,” she told the meeting.

Susanne Millar, chief officer of Glasgow’s Heath and Social Care Partnership, said engagement would begin immediately, with an initial community meeting scheduled for Thursday.

She promised “clear mechanisms for quickly sorting any issues that might arise”.

‘No single answer’

The consumption room is part of a wider move by the Scottish government to tackle a crisis which is claiming more lives per head than anywhere else in Europe.

Drugs deaths peaked at 1,339 in 2020 before falling slightly in 2021 and then dropping by about a fifth in 2022 to 1,051.

Since then preliminary figures suggest they have begun to creep up again.

The consumption room plan is supported by Scottish National Party, Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians but the UK Home Office insists “there is no safe way to take illegal drugs”.

That position is shared by Annemarie Ward, chief executive of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, which helped draft the Right to Recovery Bill tabled at Holyrood last year by the Scottish Conservatives.

Ms Ward said the SNP was playing politics by calling for Westminster to amend the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act to decriminalise possession of drugs, a move rejected by the UK government.

Instead, she said, the Scottish government should be focusing not just on harm reduction but also on treatment, prevention, dissuasion and reintegration of users into society.

“They are stoking a constitutional debate about independence, unfortunately, and that’s at the cost of people’s lives,” she said.

SNP ministers deny that is the case.

IMAGE SOURCE,GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL

Image caption, A draft design of the facility has been submitted for consideration

 

Last week Elena Whitham, minister for drugs and alcohol policy, told the Scottish Parliament “the war on drugs is over. No-one won and the main casualties were not organised criminals but the poorest and most vulnerable.”

“We know that Scotland as a nation needs to do something different and, within the confines of the law, Police Scotland is going to be a part of that, working in partnership,” said Dep Ch Con Malcolm Graham, head of local policing at Police Scotland.

He insisted the force would continue to crack down on drug dealers but added that supply was only part of the problem.

“We need to tackle the demand and we also need to tackle the harm,” said Mr Graham, adding: “There is no single answer to this problem that our nation faces.”

Scottish Tory health spokesperson Dr Sandesh Gulhane said he was happy for the pilot to be considered as a range of measures to tackle drug deaths, but added the party still had “serious reservations about how effective drug consumption rooms will be in reality”.

The MSP said the facility should not be seen as a “silver bullet to tackle this crisis”.

He called for the government to back the Tory Right to Recovery Bill, which would enshrine in law access to treatment for those struggling with drug addiction.

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