For context, there’s been a struggle to get something like this implemented for years. The Scottish Government has been wanting to try harm reduction strategies to tackle the horrible rate of drug deaths here, and the UK government have blocked it until now.
Unfortunately, this is only one small part of unravelling the country’s drugs problem. What we’re seeing now is the interaction of a number of factors:
Very good to see this kind of step.
In Sydney, Kings Cross is the main urban nightlife and redlight district. And like many such districts, it attracts all sorts of vulnerable people with few options. Including people who are addicted.
A local aid organization, The Wayside Chapel, helps a lot of people in the area. Prior to the opening of a legal injecting room in 2001, a morning chore for the staff at Wayside was a neighbourhood walk called the “body walk”. They’d stroll the alleys of the area, looking for bodies and alert the police when they found one. Some mornings, prior to the injecting room opening, they’d find two or three. After the injecting room had been opened for a while, they stopped doing the walk - it was a waste of time, for the best possible reason.