Drug consumption rooms key to tackling substance misuse in Hackney, say Greens

Green councillors Alastair Binnie-Lubbock and Zoë Garbett. Photograph: Julia Gregory

Safe rooms for people to administer drugs should be trialled in Hackney, Green party councillors have said, after residents raised concerns over substance misuse in the borough.

Hackney Downs park has been the focus of increased police presence and public anger after a spike in reports of violence, sexual harassment and anti-social behaviour this summer.

But complaints of substance misuse in the area, exposing children to crack cocaine, have also sparked a wider debate around how best to approach the problem of drug addiction.

Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, who represents Hackney Downs ward, said that although he shared residents’ frustration that “action is not happening fast enough”, the solution is to destigmatise drug consumption.

The first way to do that, he said, is by uncoupling drug use from the category of anti-social behaviour.

“Anyone can see that the war on drugs has failed, and prohibition has led to a situation where people are on the streets using hard drugs,” said Cllr Binnie-Lubbock.

“Greens would like to see all drugs regulated as well as the implementation of safer consumption rooms which are being trialled elsewhere in the UK, where drug users can access medical and other services, and residents could be protected from exposure to those taking these drugs.”

Cllr Zoë Garbett, a member for Dalston ward and joint leader of Hackney Greens, also told the Citizen she had been lobbying the council to change its approach at a local level, following the findings of the London Assembly Health Committee.

In 2022, the committee recommended that London “lead the way” in piloting drug consumption rooms.

It also said police should be able to carry naloxone, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose, to prevent unnecessary drug deaths.

Cllr Garbett, who sits on the Assembly and has a non-clinical background in the NHS, said that police in Hackney want to be able to carry the “life-saving” drug after experiencing “three deaths in Dalston this year”.

She also echoed the committee’s recommendations that the capital should introduce consumption rooms for illegal substances.

In 2023,  Kensington & Chelsea Council said it was considering such a move.

Garbett suggested this would emulate the approach of other cities, where the policy has successfully prevented fatal overdoses.

“Sydney has had a drug consumption room for 15 years, and data shows that they have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

“This is not just from being able to monitor people and reverse an overdose, but also that 80 per cent of people who attend the rooms engage with treatment,” she said.

Closer to home, Garbett raised the fact that the UK’s first consumption room for illegal drugs in Glasgow was given the green light a year ago.

“The Health Committee at the London Assembly recommended that we should have a drug safe consumption room in London, but the Mayor of London hasn’t yet acted on that.

“I said to the Mayor in July, ‘There’s a lot of good chat, but no actual difference to people’s lives’.

“With the threat of synthetic opioids in the drug supply now, the need for this has never been more urgent.”

On the issue of children being exposed to hard drug use, Garbett said residents’ concerns were “legitimate”, and that the way to help people live healthy lives is through finding “compassionate” solutions.

“We’re all trying to do the same thing. We need to make sure people and children are safe, but also make sure that people who use drugs can do so in a safe way and then get the support they need.”

Hackney Council has suggested its approach may resemble something like this.

In response to reports of drug use in Downs park, council enforcement officers said they were “conducting visits” in order to engage with “vulnerable individuals dealing with substance misuse problems or experiencing mental health issues”.

The council has in the past championed more liberal approaches to drug use, such as the ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery) approach, which launched in the borough in 2021.

After the rise in complaints of anti-social behaviour and drug use, the Citizen asked the council about its position on decoupling substance abuse from the category of “anti-social behaviour”.

Cllr Susan Fajana-Thomas, cabinet member for community safety and regulatory services, said the council was “working in a collaborative, multi-agency way with a host of partners to tackle a range of anti-social behaviour issues, including problematic drug and alcohol use”.

“Our enforcement officers work closely with a wide range of frontline services and other local agencies to address potential hotspot areas and provide support to vulnerable individuals,” she said.

“In Hackney Downs, joint patrols are carried out to identify substance misusers, make referrals to relevant agencies, and share this information with partners. Our Community Wellbeing Van also provides on-the-spot support and advice to those identified in a safe and comfortable environment.

“Alongside this, we also work with the police to tackle drug dealing and deter further crimes. We fully recognise the concern of local residents about this and the police have recently made a series of arrests for people suspected of supplying drugs in Hackney Downs Park.

“As part of our ongoing work to make Hackney a safer and healthier place, we’re committed to offering effective support to individuals who use drugs and alcohol in harmful ways, and working with the police to enforce against drug dealing.”

Garbett said the description of “problematic drug use” was itself concerning.

“When I say problematic drug use, I mean it to say that the user is damaging themselves. That’s about 10-15 per cent of any drug people are using problematically, and it means the rest of the people using it can use it without a problem.

“Drug use is so stigmatised, and people have just got a misconception  about where the harm is and, you know, people who use drugs are more likely to do harm to themselves than others.

“When you’re talking about [anti-social behaviour], let’s look at the specific behaviours arising from drug use. The fact that people are playing loud music, or shouting, that’s what people are talking about rather than drug use.

“I think it’s about separating out the behaviours and what people actually mean when they’re talking about these challenges.

“And, I would always say, the first approach should be supporting that person into drug treatment and talking to them about solving the underlying causes of their drug use, which are usually poverty or trauma.”

Vincent Stops, formerly a Labour councillor, drew attention to the Greens’ support for the policy on X (formerly Twitter), after Cllr Garbett suggested London Mayor Sadiq Khan visit one of New York’s drug consumption rooms during his transatlantic trip last week.

Speaking to the Citizen, Stops said that while the Greens’ “populist” policies on consumption rooms were on paper a positive idea, “the question is where to put them”.

“If Cllr Garbett is happy to have the rooms in middle-class parts of Dalston, I’m all for it.”

Hackney Council encourages residents to report any concerns about substance misuse to CityandHackney@turning-point.co.uk or to report anti-social behaviour, email ASBTeam@hackney.gov.uk or call 0208 356 3310.

Note: This article was amended at 09:57am on Tuesday 1 October 2024 to clarify that Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock’s point was that the solution was destigmatising drug consumption, not specifically public drug consumption, as originally stated.