Why addicts take drugs in 'fix rooms'
By Dr.Fourkan Ali
Let
works as a prostitute to fund her drug addiction Britain could soon see its
first "fix room" for drug users - a safe space where addicts can take
illegal narcotics under medical supervision. But who uses such places and how
do they work? On a cold and wet Thursday morning, there are already users
inside Skyen, one of Copenhagen's fix rooms.
Angelea
Let, 49, sits in one of the cubicles in the smoking room to take crack cocaine.
"I get a good feeling from my legs to my head, it has already taken away
50% of my pain," she says as she smokes. Angelea told the Victoria Derbyshire programme she
can spend around £600 a week on crack. She is one of hundreds of users who
visit Skyen each day. The irony of the situation is not hard to see. fix room
has an area where people can inject themselves with drugs While the hard drugs,
such as heroin and cocaine, are illegal, in a fix room they can be taken under
the watchful gaze of medical supervisors. The equipment they are given,
including needles for injecting, is clean and supplied by the shelter.
Everything
is laid on - bar the drugs, which users must bring with them. Injecting rooms
have been around for more than 30 years. Drug rooms exist officially in several
European countries, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark
and Spain, as well as in Canada and Australia. Recently a Paris hospital started
housing France's first "shooting gallery". are six fix rooms in
Denmark, and many others around Europe And Britain could be next in line. Glasgow is
planning to open the UK's first drugs
consumption room and those behind it have been looking to countries like
Denmark for inspiration. Denmark opened its first fix room in 2012 and Skyen,
which started three years ago, is one of six now running in the country. Funded
by public money, it costs about £1m a year to run. The set-up is organised and
managed. There are two separate areas for people to take drugs - the injecting
room, which seats up to nine people, and another room with eight seats, for
those who want to smoke hard drugs. But don't such facilities encourage illegal
drug use? Rasmus Koberg Christiansen, manager of Skyen, believes not. "The
situation in the area before we had the drug consumption room was that we had
all the drug users sitting around in the streets, shooting drugs in
public," says Christiansen. "After we opened this place, about 90% of
the outdoor drugs use is gone. "We have had hundreds of overdose
situations, not a single one has been fatal. Koberg Christiansen says it is
better to take people's drug use away from the streets "Our purpose is
harm reduction, however, if or when a user expresses a wish to stop or cut down
on their drug use, we react immediately and help the person to make contact to
a relevant facility." Located in the heart of the Danish capital's red
light district, Skyen is conveniently situated for Angelea, who volunteers in a
soup kitchen by day and works as prostitute by night. It was the effects of a car
accident almost 20 years ago that led to her drug habit, she says. "After
I was in the accident, there was no feeling in my left leg and arm for about
six years. I have the feeling back now, but I'm in constant pain." To take
the edge off, Angelea smokes mostly crack cocaine, and occasionally heroin. She
feels safe in the fix room, knowing that the staff and one of the nurses
constantly on duty will watch over her. They are there to prevent people from
dying from overdosing. Media caption'Could you live my life for one week?'
Skyen
fix room
700,000
drug intakes in the facility since it opened
More
than 500 overdoses on site, but no-one has died
Open
23 hours a day
Houses
between 500-700 drug intakes per day
Has
5,772 registered users
People
are allowed 35 minutes in the smoking room and 45 minutes in the injecting room
There is a constant flow of people in an out of the Skyen rooms throughout the
day. Some of them are new faces to the staff, but many are regular users and
can come multiple times in a few hours. Angelea is back later in the afternoon
to smoke crack again. "I'm here again because I'm in so much pain,"
she says as she rushes into the smoking room. The drugs room stays open through
the night, closing only for an hour each morning for cleaning. It is not a
treatment facility to get addicts off drugs, and many people will use it before
going back to their difficult and sometimes dangerous lifestyles. Late in the
evening, only a few streets away, Angelea is out working, trying to find customers
to pay for her next fix. "I'm going to work, make some money and then
smoke cocaine, then go back to work, make more money and smoke more cocaine
again in the fix room. This is my lovely life," she says, laughing
bitterly.
The
writer Teacher & Columnist
8801611579267
dr.fourkanali@gmail.com
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