PCC pushes case for 'drug consumption rooms' for heroin addicts

David Jamieson wants to set up a series of drug consumption rooms (DCRs) where addicts can get high in peace using taxpayer-funded clean needles.

Sites near to railway stations across the region are being considered as possible locations for the rooms, which are one of a range of measures the PCC wants to bring in to address the region's "monumental failure" to deal with the drugs epidemic.

Mr Jamieson first put forward the case for DCRs two years ago.

Now he hopes a report he commissioned which is out today, entitled Out Of Harm's Way, will kick-start the process, allowing the first one to open in the near future.

"Drug consumption rooms could help reduce needle litter and deaths from overdoses, and help to get drug addicts into treatment," he told the E&S.

"This will reduce the harm to some of the most vulnerable people in our society – and also reduce the cost of drug addiction to the taxpayer."

Other suggestions put forward by Mr Jamieson include scrapping prison sentences for druggies involved in petty theft and small scale possession offences, with courts instead instructed to put them on drug prevention programmes.

And drug testing tents could be set up in town and city centres, allowing recreational drug users to test the quality of their MDMA and cocaine before they get off their heads.

The Labour PCC said a "triple whammy of bad things" meant the country was "failing on a monumental scale" to deal with drug addiction.

"We're not stopping harm to people's health, we have all the criminality that goes with it, and it is costing the taxpayer an absolute fortune," he said.

Mr Jamieson said the DCRs would run in a similar way to those currently operating in Canada, Australia and parts of Europe.

"Addicts would be able to take their drugs in, get given a clean needle and have medical assistance nearby," he said.

This would help reduce Hepatitis C – a major health concern in the West Midlands – and HIV, and also result in fewer people turning up at A&E, he said, which could mean a huge saving for the NHS.

Mr Jamieson says there is "a lot of interest" in putting DCRs in parts of the Black Country and Birmingham. "We've got to find the right places for them," he said, suggesting central locations near railway stations as possible sites.

"We want local people to have a say on it. We can't just impose these things. If we can find sensible locations then we will do it.

"This is about reducing the crime, reducing the harm, and reducing the cost to the taxpayer."

A further option being explored is heroin assisted treatment, where addicts are prescribed drugs on the NHS in an effort to "keep them away from thieving" and eventually wean them off drugs.

The PCC says drug testing tents would target people who take recreational drugs on nights out, who he describes as "generally good kids who can be sold dangerous drugs by unscrupulous people."

They would allow people to have drugs such as cocaine and MDMA tested to make sure they are safe before they get off their heads.

One was piloted in Birmingham last year, and saw one in seven people who had drugs tested throwing them away, while in one instance potentially killer pills were found.

It meant police were able to put a warning out about the dangerous drugs, which Mr Jamieson said "probably saved lives".

The way forward is to not treat people who are taking drugs as criminals, but to deal with the health risk," he said.

"If we send them to prison they just get worse," he said. "If they are not addicts when they go in, they certainly will be when they come out.

"Prison is not the answer."

The report was due to be unveiled at a drug summit in Birmingham today.

West Bromwich West Conservative MP Shaun Bailey said he was against drug consumption rooms.

"Where's the legal framework? Because it's not there to do it," he said. "Where are you going to put these places? What's the residual risk? I just don't think it can work."