How 'fixing rooms' are saving the lives of drug addicts

Across Europe, facilities that offer medical supervision for addicts are dramatically reducing drug-related deaths
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, November 21, 2018

All over Europe, every day, many thousands of people will inject heroin in drug consumption rooms. But none of these will be in the UK, where drug addicts are mainly confined to back streets, crack houses and hostel bedrooms. While European overdose rates are falling, the UK now has the worst drug death rate across the continent: one in three of the approximate 8,000 people who die as a result of drugs in Europe will do so in Britain. There has never been a recorded death in any of the 78 drug consumption rooms in Europe. Why? Because nurses quickly administer antidotes and immediately resuscitate the person before calling an ambulance. Elsewhere, the death rate from opiate overdoses is about 6%.

tags:
heroin | germany | UK | france | european drug policy | denmark | spain | switzerland | drug consumption rooms | portugal