One thing I learned a long time ago: the drug culture that surrounds long-term opioid use is much the same wherever you travel — in big cities in the UK, for example, as it is in Baltimore or Philadelphia. The differences, such as they are, are mostly cosmetic. The dynamics of addiction, and the addicted lifestyle, are reasonably consistent.
With the advent of fentanyl and increased concern about its death toll, big cities in England and Scotland — in this example, Glasgow – have adopted harm reduction strategies used elsewhere in Europe and North America. One of these is the “supervised safe injection center”, where users can self-administer drugs such as heroin while monitored by medical professionals.
Based on the following story, courtesy of the BBC, it doesn’t appear as if the process is all that safe.
Alarms, overdoses and saving lives: Two days in UK’s first drug injection room
The action takes place at The Thistle (the center’s name) during early days of operation, so I imagine the chaos has lessened somewhat as staff have gained experience. The target client for such programs is one who has been using on a regular basis over an extended period, usually years. The goal: a significant reduction in the risk of unintended overdose and the fatalities that can result.
Here’s an actual incident involving an overdose, that just happened to take place while the TV crew was onsite and filming. One user had been onsite for only a few minutes when he unexpectedly collapsed.
“Staff rush to help, bringing him from his seat to a crash mat on the floor…a harm reduction worker tells us that the man had already taken drugs three times that day…”He’s using a ‘snowball’, he’s using heroin and cocaine,” a worker explains. “He’s been in there two minutes and he’s on the floor.”
What appeared to be simple intoxication had suddenly turned into a life-threatening emergency. It’s the sort of thing we would expect to see on any given day in a big-city American ER.
I suspect that no matter what measures they take, however well-intentioned, such ventures will never be entirely successful in making active drug addiction ‘safe.’ It’s an inherently risky behavior.
