Change drug policy or risk more poisoning deaths, UK government warned

[Simple Jack]

Change drug policy or risk more poisoning deaths, UK government warned

Experts call for consumption rooms and wider testing of substances, as number of people dying hits new high

Experts in drug addiction have warned the government must take a different approach towards illegal substance use, or risk an increasing number of deaths from drug poisonings.

Data published by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that the number of people dying as a result of drug poisoning had reached the highest level on record.

There were 5,448 deaths in 2023, an increase of more than 11% since 2022, the previous highest year on record, with nearly half of those deaths attributable to opioids. The areas hit worst were north-east and north-west England and Wales.

Prof Fiona Measham, chair in criminology at Liverpool University and founder of The Loop, a national drug testing organisation, believes that deaths will continue to rise until open testing of drugs becomes more normalised.

“It has become quite clear that we can’t just ban things, because the drugs we ban just get replaced with stronger and stronger drugs,” she said. “We need to think outside the box.”

On-site testing of drugs is possible in the UK but organisations that wish to do so must obtain a licence from the Home Office. Festival organisers have previously complained that doing so can take months and cost thousands of pounds.

The Loop runs drug testing services across the country including at festivals such as Parklife, who were told to get a new licence at short notice last year. The group also opened England’s first regular drug testing service in Bristol earlier this year, and Measham hopes that the positive effects seen there can be emulated in other cities where drug misuse is rife.

“I would argue it should, and hope it will, be rolled out in other cities,” Measham said. “I’ve lived in Manchester for over 30 years, I work in Liverpool and I hope these are some of the cities which pick up drug testing because these are some of the places affected most by drug-related deaths.”

The recent rise in opioid deaths has been attributed in part to the increased prevalence of synthetic opioids, which have become more widespread on the streets.

Synthetic opioids are far stronger than regular opioids, with increased risks of an overdose. The synthetic opioid nitazene has been found in heroin, amphetamines and in vapes, with children in Middlesbrough needing treatment with the opioid antagonist naloxone after using a black market vape earlier this year.

The north-east as a whole had the highest rate of drug-related deaths out of all the English regions and Wales, according to last week’s data.

George Charlton, a Durham-based consultant who works in addiction support, says that despite evidence that an empathetic approach to drug use has worked abroad, the UK remains resistant.

“We know that there’s 20 countries around the world that use drug consumption rooms, and that there hasn’t been a single death in one of those rooms,” he said. “People go in there to use all sorts in a safe way, with medical staff on hand. If we know something works, why aren’t we doing it? It blows my mind that we know what the solutions are but we don’t do them.”

In January, a Home Office spokesperson for the Conservative government said: “We do not support the introduction of drug consumption rooms in England and Wales, due to significant concerns they risk encouraging drug use.”

Charlton, a former user who says his life has been saved from overdoses multiple times, believes the stigma towards users makes it harder for them to get professional help.

“We’ve been conditioned for so long to believe these people are scum of the earth but they’re not – they’re somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter. Everyone is somebody’s somebody.”

A spokesperson for the current government said: “Drug-related deaths are tragically at record highs and this new government is committed to gripping this problem. We are also highly alert to the threat from emerging synthetic drugs.”

“We will work across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, including synthetic opioids, and make our streets safer.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/27/change-drug-policy-or-risk-more-poisoning-deaths-uk-government-warned

[Scroggersean]

They would have to care about something other than themselves first. Good luck finding a politician whose primary interest isnt in enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else.

[Slippy One]

They’d have better luck legalising pedos 

[JamieThePainter]

10 minutes ago, Slippy One said:

They’d have better luck legalising pedos 

 

They've already done that by making the BBC I'm afraid. 

[MidgeSmith]

I feel sad for the BBC in some ways. The disgusting, depraved bastards and their protectors are pillars of the corporation's infrastructure, but aren't, of course, the majority of the staff.

 

They've also made some programmes, series and genres better than anyone else. On the few occasions when I have encountered BBC staff, they have been great, like workers from any other company.

I find it hard to unpick the great and the vile...

[Boojum]

Aye @MidgeSmith like many corporations it's rotten at the top (and the position of being controlled by the government, that the board is chosen by the privy council and the Secretary of State and that the government can potentially abolish the license fee and leave the corporation in serious financial shit if it doesn't toe the line is the primary cause of the rot). The Old Boy Network indeed.

[ratdog]

this gives a good summary of the bell ends in the group behind drug policy

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by ratdog

[MistYGr33n]

I think this is in line with what Scotland are trying or want to set up. These “drug consumption rooms” are places to go to use drugs in a safe environment. That is what Scotland are doing in relation to the increased deaths per year. I read it a few days ago in the news.

It’s ludicrous. Test drugs?! Can you imagine taking someone’s heroin, testing it and saying it’s bad stuff. Do they give it back anyway? They better or someone clucking will rip their throat out. 
what’s the information going to tell them, that there’s bad gear around? How long does I take to test drugs anyway, I thought it was longer than a few minutes and included a laboratory. Plus the staff etc.

I could pick so many holes in the idea, as I said, ridiculous.

Scotland still has the highest drug death rate in Europe with a rise of 12% this year. Glasgow and Dundee being the worst cities.

That was reported Nationwide as per in August and sure as the sun rising and setting some political pandering bullshit scheme comes along to give the impression there tackling the problem. If anything does come of it it’ll probably be one tiny centre in the middle of a city centre somewhere.

 

[MidgeSmith]

7 minutes ago, MistYGr33n said:

It’s ludicrous. Test drugs?! Can you imagine taking someone’s heroin, testing it and saying it’s bad stuff. Do they give it back anyway?

I think the idea for hard drugs is to let you know if it is contaminated with anything particularly insidious and give you a purity rating.  That should be enough to prevent you dying.

[ratdog]

to think this guy had the papers printing his bile

 

 

[Hugh Jass]

24 minutes ago, MistYGr33n said:

I think this is in line with what Scotland are trying or want to set up. These “drug consumption rooms” are places to go to use drugs in a safe environment. That is what Scotland are doing in relation to the increased deaths per year. I read it a few days ago in the news.

It’s ludicrous. Test drugs?! Can you imagine taking someone’s heroin, testing it and saying it’s bad stuff. Do they give it back anyway? They better or someone clucking will rip their throat out. 
what’s the information going to tell them, that there’s bad gear around? How long does I take to test drugs anyway, I thought it was longer than a few minutes and included a laboratory. Plus the staff etc.

I could pick so many holes in the idea, as I said, ridiculous.

Scotland still has the highest drug death rate in Europe with a rise of 12% this year. Glasgow and Dundee being the worst cities.

That was reported Nationwide as per in August and sure as the sun rising and setting some political pandering bullshit scheme comes along to give the impression there tackling the problem. If anything does come of it it’ll probably be one tiny centre in the middle of a city centre somewhere.

 

 

It just takes a minute or two to test for what it is, a kitchen table would suffice. If you want to know the purity then you have to take a further test, which takes longer depending on the substance.

It's quite cheap to make your own test kit, so a company running multiple tests could do it for pennies a test.

 

 

People taking Heroin, crack, spice on a regular basis, have other problems the drugs they use are a symptom of their problems bot the cause. We need to address these problems and not just make drugs illegal.

[Arthur Mix]

Back in the 90’s we used to test drugs for purity at the squat parties etc. The police unofficially agreed it was a sensible move. We never had any people need medical treatment at our events unless it was an injury. We decided as a collective it was better to test drugs  than have people keel over etc . Irc there’s an article about it in an old Mixmag magazine . When we did legal club nights obv we couldn’t be as responsible this is why we mainly did illegal events fuck the laws .

[MidgeSmith]

1 hour ago, ratdog said:

to think this guy had the papers printing his bile

Oh God.

He's losing his edge, though he has been considered a skilled, if phlegmatic and bilious speaker for years.

An online *friend* of mine Peter Reynolds of CLEAR Cannabis Law reform in Ireland spoke opposite him at Product Earth (the first day before it was cancelled) and got the same uninformed, authoritarian and antiquated responses as this interviewer. Peter is the complete opposite, a learned, honest and open thinking and speaker, but I suspect he got similar short shrift. Hitchens is fast becoming an analogue of Borish Johnson.

Hitchens has made up his mind and no new information will change it.  He's a vile angry and small man in my view, though he still has the respect of some.

Edited 8 hours ago by MidgeSmith

[Boojum]

Peter Reynolds is a cunt, every bit as bad as Hitchens.

[ratdog]

33 minutes ago, MidgeSmith said:

Peter is the complete opposite, a learned, honest and open thinking

 

 

check out the member poet peter here

 

looks like he's been removed, he's a massive fraud mate, i've had "discussions" here with him, he called me a paranoid cunt

Edited 8 hours ago by ratdog