The boss of a major charity on the frontline of Britain’s drug deaths crisis has challenged authorities, saying he plans to open a potentially life-saving overdose prevention facility within months – with or without their help.

As drug charities brace for fears of a deadly influx of powerful synthetic opioids into the UK, experts have urged Rishi Sunak’s government to end its long-running policy of training people to use the overdose-reversing drug naloxone Objections to facilities that use illegal drugs in the presence of vegetarian staff. .

While Scotland is currently pushing to build the UK’s first official facility in Glasgow, there are growing concerns after the country’s top legal body made a game-changing intervention to end the long-running Holyrood-Westminster dispute. Hopes remain that similar services will be available in England and Wales. Not yet implemented.

Martin Blakeborough, chief executive of charity Kaleidoscope, said he was angered by years of fruitless discussions over rising drug-related deaths and the developments in Scotland add to the The event provided support. independent He plans to trial several “micro” drug consumption venues in south Wales as early as this summer – possibly even sooner than in Glasgow.

“This is a huge debate we’re having in Wales right now and I’ve basically put it on the agenda, partly as a result of ‘we’re going to start this service with or without you’,” Mr Blackborough said.

“We’ve been talking about this issue in Wales for ten years and we’ve done nothing,” he added. “The Scots gave me the confidence to say, ‘I’m going to reveal your identity now and I’m going to make a fuss about it’ and eventually it moved up the political agenda.”

There are more than 200 such overdose prevention services in 17 countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Australia and Iceland. Some facilities have reversed thousands of overdoses without a single death, has also been shown to lead to Drug use does not increase, generally reduces or has no impact on local crime levels, and tends to significantly reduce drug-related litter and street injection incidents.

Despite this, these facilities have long been rejected and even derided by the current Westminster government. Meanwhile, drug deaths in England and Wales have risen for the 11th year running, setting a grim new record and almost doubling since 2012.

But after activist Peter Kyrkant risked arrest in 2020 provide such services Last year, Scotland’s defense lawyers intervened in a converted ambulance to say such prosecutions were “not in the public interest”. As a result, the UK government has now softened its stance and said it will not block such services in Scotland, potentially paving the way for other countries to follow suit in parts of England and Wales that rely on support from police and local leaders.

Kaleidoscope’s pilot project will be limited to a target number of drug users who have been provided clean needles by the charity but are currently being forced back to the streets to use drugs.

While the charity warns that it is vital to quickly establish a proof of concept in the UK before a deadly influx of synthetic opioids, Blackborough stressed that the planned facility would be crucial to helping clear streets of discarded needles and prevent people from It is important to disclose the circumstances of the injection.

“I’m standing up for people in our community who have had enough,” he said. “Coming to Cardiff you see people injecting openly, you see discarded needles everywhere and I think the scandal is – why do we tolerate this?”

Crucially, Kaleidoscope has pledged to self-fund the launch of the new service if it fails to secure official support. “Ultimately we don’t want to use our own resources to fund them. But at a certain point, if you don’t take action, nothing will change,” Mr Blackborough said.

Mr Blackborough stressed he was simply proposing to build a consumption space on some of his charity’s existing needle exchange sites, at minimal cost and only to around 30 or 40 selected drug users already in the community. open, in stark contrast to the millions of new needle exchange sites. The Sterling Center is being set up in Glasgow.

“When residents complain to me about, ‘You’re injecting people in my backyard,’ I sympathize,” he said. “I ask, ‘What else can I do?’ So we need to do something about this.” The only way I can think of is: wouldn’t it be better for them to come into my facility where they would get the needle anyway and then use it on the premises? But it’s not a free-for-all for every stoner. “

Kaleidoscope has been holding talks with local leaders and has the support of Senedd members from all four main parties, while Mr Blackborough is working on a memorandum of understanding with South Wales Police to secure his and his charity’s work Personnel do not face arrest for facilitating services.

Sheriff Mark Kavanagh told independent “In principle, the force supports the delivery of innovative and ambitious approaches to reducing drug-related harm, with safe consumption being one of a number of potential health-led pathways currently being explored by partners”.

He added: “This is a complex undertaking and therefore remains a work in progress. While we address this issue, we will continue to work closely with our partners in our collective efforts to minimize drug-related deaths and associated harm .”

Peredur Owen Griffiths, chair of the Senedd all-party group on substance use and addiction, said: “If there is someone who can pilot it well, I think Kaleidoscope is best placed to do that One of the companies because they have expertise in the field. They have good relationships with the community and the police so are building trust with all parties to check whether this actually works in practice in Wales.”

“Most civil society will see… [it] Mr Owen Griffiths added: “It’s a positive thing because it alleviates some problems in the NHS and allows police to deal with other things, so there’s a sound reasoning behind how it works.”

“The number of deaths from drugs continues to rise, so there is a clear need to do this,” he said, adding: “It’s about making sure people don’t die unnecessarily – that’s really fundamental.”

Pat Hudson, emeritus professor at Cardiff University, said his 32-year-old son Kevin died of a heroin overdose in 2017. independent: “I do believe that if my son had a safe place to have his jab in Carmarthen town center today, he would have died there.

“Instead, like many others, he used the toilet in a Marks and Spencer department store, locked the door and overdosed, which is easy to do when you buy heroin from the street and you have no idea what you are taking. Intensity and dosage. Of course, no one noticed because the door was locked until someone realized the door was locked for some time and they cleared the store and broke in, but by then it was too late.”

“I fully support this progressive move by Kaleidoscope. “If people feel it is safe to go somewhere and it is monitored, they will choose to go there,” said Professor Hudson, a member of the Anyone’s Child campaign group. “Also, when This would free more young people from the stigma of seeking treatment services when drug use becomes a problem.

“If they regularly go somewhere where they are respected and cared for, they are more likely to receive treatment services at that critical moment of need for the first time.”

Professor Hudson expressed concern about the influx of new, powerful synthetic opioids that killed at least four people in South Wales prisons earlier this year, saying: “This is an epidemic that is going to happen and if we can build it With a few centers and through running, we will be able to address this crisis before it overwhelms young people and families like mine.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The use of overdose prevention vans or ‘safe injection sites’ is a matter for the UK Government as legislation around drug misuse has not yet been devolved”, adding: “We are working with partners across Wales. .. Rapidly develop our response to the synthetic opioid threat.”