Royal College of Nursing boss supports SSP heroin policy

Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the RCN

The head of the Royal College of Nursing has backed the idea of clean pharmaceutical heroin being made available on prescription to addicts, an idea the SSP has campaigned in favour of for years.

Peter Carter was speaking as the RCN discussed the results of pilot studies conducted last year in London, Darlington and Brighton. The schemes allowed heroin users to inject under supervision in special consumption rooms. The studies found, as several previous schemes have already, that heroin on prescription means users can break away from using illegal dealers, and cut the huge cost of their problem. This in turn cuts crime in the local area massively, as people with drug problems are no longer forced to steal to feed their problem. The amount of crime committed by addicts in the areas being studied was cut by two thirds. Participants in the study were found to have cut the amount they were spending on heroin from £300 a week to £50.

The provision of consumption rooms also reduces the risk of overdoses, and of transmission of diseases like hepatitis or HIV, as their is always access to clean needles. Once users are are taking part in a medical programme their prescription can be gradually reduced to help break their addictions.

Dr. Carter said:

“Addicts can take the drugs there [in consumption rooms] rather than go to school playgrounds or the stairwells of flats. Critics say that you are encouraging drug addiction but the reality is that these people are addicts and they are going to do it anyway. I do believe in heroin prescribing. The fact is heroin is very addictive. People who are addicted so often resort to crime, to steal to buy the heroin. This obviates the need for them to steal.

It might take a few years but I think people will understand. If you are going to get people off heroin then in the initial stages we have to have proper heroin prescribing services.”

A consumption room, where addicts can inject with medical supervision

The idea has traditionally been opposed by those who object to addicts being given heroin at public expense, however, these studies are just the latest that show heroin on prescription can play a major role in ending the huge problems caused by addiction. It’s time to recognise that heroin users are people with serious health problems, and usually have reached addiction as a result of abuse, poverty and hopelessness. Drug addiction is a problem of society, and the war on drugs approach of pretending that it is just an individual choice has clearly failed. Putting the blame on individuals for their own problems simply fails to understand how they have come about, and what can be done to help end them. Treating people with health problems as criminals just makes the situation worse. Heroin on prescription on the other hand is a real step towards helping people end the nightmare of addiction.

The SSP has always stood for what will actually help reduce the harm caused by drugs, rather than blaming individuals for what are social problems. Yet again, study has shown that heroin on prescription will protect health and reduce crime. Reducing the huge profits made from the international heroin trade will also go a huge way to helping undermine the basis of warlords’ power in Afghanistan. It’s time that this SSP policy was implemented in Scotland and beyond.