UK launches controversial 'Fix rooms' where drug addicts can inject 'safely' under medical supervision

Thursday, November 03, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: fix rooms, heroin-assisted treatment, Scotland

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(NaturalNews) The rise and advancement of progressive thought in the modern age has led to the adoption of ever-more-baffling social experimentation, and few have been as controversial as handing out illicit drugs to addicts and then giving them a "safe place" in which to use them.

The United Kingdom is one of the latest to engage in such buffoonery.

As reported by the BBC, a new plan has been adopted in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, to provide drug users an area in which to inject "safely," and under supervision (good luck with 'supervising' a bunch of people wiped on heroin and other psychotropic drugs).

Members of the city's health board, city council and even police have agreed to the new proposals in principle but they have also sought additional details about how much the program will cost, where the clinic will be located and how it would be operated.

Supporters say such programs reduce costs and improve health

Under the plan, a drug facility will be made available for addicts so they can consume their own drugs. But in some cases, the BBC noted, users will actually be provided with medical-grade heroin.

The plan stems from a desire to do something about the problems being caused by about 500 or so addicts who currently shoot up on Glasgow's streets. If the plan goes through, the addict clinic will become the first one in the UK.

Currently, proposals are being looked at by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board, which has already approved the development of a pilot safe drug consumption facility and "heroin assisted treatment," as the BBC called it. The board has also said that any potential program must also offer "wrap around" services on the same premises, like health care, counseling, welfare advice and even housing.

"The case for opening an injecting facility for drug users in the city was examined by the Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) - a multi-agency group tasked by the Scottish government with tackling alcohol and drug issues," the British news agency reported.

The head of the ADP, Susanne Millar, said that her panel's approval "enables us to build a robust business case which will support this service."

Continuing, she said the partnership believes that the project will lead to better overall health for addicts and "benefit local communities and businesses that are currently adversely affected by public injecting" of drugs.

Millar said that when addicts inject in public spaces they are subjecting themselves to higher than normal levels of harm, as well as having a negative impact on the community as a whole. The goal of the program, then, is to "make our communities safer for all people living in and visiting, the city, including those who publicly inject."

The BBC noted that similar programs currently operate elsewhere in Europe: Holland, Switzerland, France and Germany. Australia also has adopted a similar approach.

Supporters say such programs reduce costs and improve health

Should the program actually launch in Glasgow, it would extend current opioid substitution therapy services to include heroin-assisted treatment while building a peer support infrastructure that should reduce risks for addicts.

The partnership argued that the majority of discarded needles that are found on the streets are left there by addicts who are shooting up in public. The discarded drug paraphernalia pose a health risk in and of themselves, ADP members noted, and that contributes to a disruption of the civil society.

But how is a program that actually provides a safe space – and drugs – to addicts going to lower homelessness, mental health issues and poverty? Isn't effective drug treatment with the objective of getting addicts off their drugs a much better approach?

No, say pushers of the safe space concept. Such programs actually work, they say, to reduce dependency and lower overall costs by reducing incarceration and money spent on government treatment facilities.

True. But what this program will also do is keep a segment of the population drugged and dependent on big government for their existence, which is never a good thing for a people who pride themselves on being free.

And in the U.S., heroin and opioid addiction is largely fed by Big Pharma.

Sources:

BBC.com

NaturalNews.com

Science.NaturalNews.com