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| Exchange of drug views |
A Tottenham Court Road needle exchange
is essential, argues Dr Anthony Kessel, while Tory councillor Andrew
Mennear says it will just make drug problems worse
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Dr Anthony Kessel
Town Hall staff clean up needles
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CAMDEN’S Drug Action Team (DAT) is a multi-agency group
committed to combating the health and social problems which drugs
cause. An important part of the DAT’s work is the development
of a well managed and properly controlled needle exchange in the
West End .
The needle exchange will sit alongside enforcement measures
aimed at identifying drug dealers and preventing anti-social behaviour
and effective police action is an essential part of tackling the
problem.
But the DAT is committed to a broad strategy of ‘prevention,
treatment and enforcement’, aimed at preventing drug use
and its harmful health and social effects, at offering treatment
and the opportunity to kick the habit to drug users and at enforcing
current drugs control legislation.
The development of a fixed site needle exchange is a key part
of this strategy. At present, a van is used in the West End to
provide drug users the opportunity to exchange dirty needles for
clean ones. The van is cramped and offers little opportunity for
the NHS staff to educate drug users, and help them towards treatment.
In contrast, a fixed exchange can afford the space and privacy
for valuable health promotion work, acting as a gateway to drug
rehabilitation services.
The West End makes most sense as the location, as this is where
the drug users are.
There are public health benefits of a fixed site in both the short
and long term. In the short term, better exchange of needles means
less chance of drug users contracting blood-borne diseases such
as Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, and also less discarded equipment
on the streets.
In the long term, low prevalence rates of these diseases is good
for the community’s health in general, but it also means
that whatever discarded equipment persists will be less likely
to be contagious and therefore less of a risk to the public.
Other potential benefits include less acquisitive crime. There
is evidence that improved access to drugs treatment nationally
has reduced levels of drug-related crime. We know that the best
way to stop crime and anti-social behaviour caused by drug users
is to get them into treatment. But persuading a long term drug
user to take up treatment is difficult and we need to make it
as easy as possible for people to find their way into treatment.
There may be concern that switching to a fixed site will attract
drug users and therefore more needles to the area, but there is
little evidence to suggest this might happen. In fact, a health
impact assessment undertaken in 2004 encouraged a mixed economy
of facilities; a fixed site would be a key element of this, supported
by pharmacy and hostel based needle exchanges. National policies
support this model.
Camden is the only inner London borough not to have a fixed site,
and it is badly needed. Some boroughs already have several. What
is important is that we work carefully to ensure a new modern
exchange is well managed and monitored, that community concerns
are addressed, and that safety is maintained.
• Dr Anthony Kessel, is Camden’s director of public
health.
Cllr Andrew Mennear |
DEEP down, most people know it’s crazy to locate a needle
exchange for drug addicts at Tottenham Court Road Tube Station among
its many subways, several of which are scary and unpleasant at the
best of times.
Good old Camden, of course, is willing to fund an additional street
warden post to keep guard at the entrance of the subway, so I suppose
that’s alright then?
Apparently there needs to be a permanent needle exchange in Bloomsbury
because addicts won’t travel as far as Cleveland Street, where
the old needle exchange was located, or University College Hospital.
This is ridiculous for two reasons. First, if you are going to have
a needle exchange for public health reasons then surely it is better
to have it located with other health services. If the current PFI
building work at UCH makes this difficult, then we should wait until
this is completed.
Second, however, the notion that drug addicts don’t travel
is clearly false as councillors were told that users of the mobile
needle exchange at Centrepoint come equally from Camden, Westminster
and further afield.
The PCT also told councillors that there is an urgent need for a
new needle exchange because there had been 19 new HIV cases in Camden
where dirty needles were the likely cause. Given that Camden currently
has 13 pharmacies, at least three hostels and two mobile units at
which needles can be exchanged, one might argue that this shows
that the current policy of accommodating the drugs industry isn’t
working.
Let’s face it, needle exchanges are part of the problem, not
the solution. They are a well-meaning attempt to help society avert
its eyes from a problem which the government is failing to address.
Rather than making it easier for addicts to get a supply of needles,
we should be doing all we can to clamp down on the use of drugs.
But the current government, and, indeed, our Labour council, is
intent on designing our lives around the drugs menace rather than
combating it.
While Labour is happy to make smoking socially unacceptable, it
sends out mixed messages on drugs. I look forward to the day (perhaps
after the May elections?) when we introduce zero tolerance for drugs
in Camden.
• Andrew Mennear is a Conservative councillor for the Fitzjohn’s
ward. |
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