Brighton considers opening UK’s first safe drug consumption rooms

Brighton and Hove City Council is considering whether to provide rooms where drug users could use illegal drugs safely, as a way to reduce drug related deaths.

The recommendation comes from the Independent Drugs Commission for Brighton and Hove after a year long investigation into how services in the city could best reduce the harm caused by drugs.1

In 2000 Brighton was branded the “drugs death capital of the UK” when 67 people died from drug misuse. This figure has since been reduced to 20 deaths a year, but the commission said that the city still had more than 2000 problem heroin and cocaine users.

The commission conducted a series of discussions and consultations with …