Why addicts take drugs in 'fix rooms'

[Chip (OP)]

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38531307

Why addicts take drugs in 'fix rooms'



Angelea 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.



The 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".



There 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.

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