Homeless addicts 'drugs bus' plan

The proposed drugs bus would be somewhere for addicts to inject

Drugs charities want to run a bus around Cardiff to let homeless heroin addicts inject themselves.

In what would be the first scheme of its kind in the UK, the agencies said it would improve care for addicts and stop them injecting in public places.

The idea will be put to Welsh assembly members on Tuesday, and Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart has asked for a report.

But the Home Office has said it would be illegal.

Some 10 heroin users die in the city every year, and drugs workers argued that the single decker vehicle would allow them to tackle illnesses and problems suffered by homeless addicts.

Individuals' health and lives are at completely unnecessary risk and the general public is at unnecessary risk Carl Chapple, Homeless Link Cymru

The idea is in the early stages of development and those behind it said they recognised that it was bound to be difficult to implement.

The proposal has not yet been fully costed, but its supporters hope they will gain funding from a number of different sources, including the budgets to deal with homelessness, health, community safety partnerships and criminal justice budgets.

So-called "safe injecting facilities" are already running in countries like Switzerland, Holland and Germany, but if Cardiff was to have a drugs bus it would be the first of its kind in the UK.

Those backing the pilot said it would provide users with a safe, clean place to inject with the added benefit of medical supervision.

Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood said: "It is vital that the most vulnerable in our society have access to a mobile injecting facility because of the severe health risks they face.

"Uninformed injecting practices can result in severe illnesses including amputation and, in the worst cases, death."

Ms Wood said it was incorrect to argue that the idea would be illegal, and claimed an amendment to the law had been put on hold "at least until 2005" after representations to the Home Office.

'Intelligent and pragmatic'

Carl Chapple, of Homeless Link Cymru, said: "The people who would be using the service would technically be committing an offence, however the people providing the service would not be committing any offence.

Heroin is a public health issue, but normalising heroin-taking is not the way forward David Raynes, National Drugs Prevention Alliance

"We're looking at this from a public health angle more than a criminal justice angle. These are offences that would be committed anyway.

"What we're saying is that we need an intelligent and pragmatic response to a serious public health problem.

"Individuals' health and lives are at completely unnecessary risk and the general public is at unnecessary risk and we need to respond to that reasonably."

But David Raynes, of the National Drugs Prevention Alliance, said: "The real problem with the idea is that under British law it's illegal.

"It isn't in the gift of the Welsh assembly to create new drug dens. It encourages drug taking and it encourages dealers.

'Tragic cases'

"Allowing premises to be used for taking street drugs is not part of the British government's plan.

"If somebody starts one, and they allow drug-taking on a regular basis, the chief constable of south Wales would have to step in and cause a prosecution.

"Heroin is a public health issue, but normalising heroin-taking is not the way forward. The way forward is stop people ever getting into heroin in the first place.

"These are tragic cases but there is no easy answer and the way it's talked about is as though it's solving the problem."

Assembly government minister Edwina Hart asked one of her officials to be at the presentation and report back, although it understood that the scheme would be illegal.

It also cited a report by the International Narcotics Control Board that such rooms "might even facilitate drug abuse, are contrary to the international drug control treaties and interfere with obligations of law enforcement authorities".

The Home Office said: "The UK will not contravene or undermine UN conventions or the Misuse of Drugs Act.

"We believe facilities for supervising the consumption of illegal drugs would fall foul of these.

"Therefore no authority could be given to the piloting of initiatives to supervise the consumption of illegal drugs."