He told me, "It's a depressing reflection on the dismal state of UK drug policy thinking in government that, despite evidence from reforms around the world, and indeed despite advice from their own expert advisors, they have again rejected pragmatic evidence-based policies like decriminalisation, supervised consumption venues and heroin-assisted therapy.
19 20 Recent attempts to address the problem of diversion in the UK, by the introduction of supervised consumption of buprenorphine and methadone at the dispensing pharmacy, 21 have led to a significant reduction in the rate of methadone deaths in relation to number of patients treated.
Negative consequences included increased supervision, breathalysing, delayed dispensing and supervised consumption of methadone.
But prescription heroin and supervised consumption sites were never intended to work in isolation.
A report released by the nonprofit Rand Corporation this week analyzed the literature on two interventions ― prescription heroin and supervised consumption sites ― that already exist in Europe, Canada and Australia, but are still highly controversial in the United States.
UK clinical guidelines 42 suggest that supervised consumption can be relaxed and take-home doses prescribed when a doctor has good reason to believe that a patient will be able to maintain compliance with his or her methadone treatment.
16 17 Recommendations were made for UK clinical practice to align with other countries, with the introduction of new arrangements for supervised consumption of methadone, 18 19 and major change occurred over the past decade.
I would say that supervised consumption facilities probably do some good and there's definitely a moral argument there to be made for allowing individuals to inject without the threat of overdose.
15 Formal structured psychosocial support is recommended alongside explicit pharmacological support: supervised consumption, clarity about maintenance or detoxification, and optimal dose ranges for maintenance.
"One of our asks to the new government is to both repeal this legislation and, instead of creating barriers to supervised consumption services, implement policy that would bring in new services and initiative for [harm reduction]," she said.
