by Martin Murray

Scotland has by far the highest rate of drug related deaths in Europe, and that death rate is continuing to rise.

Around the turn of the millennium, I was living in the Franciscan friary in Craigmillar in Edinburgh. Drug abuse was prevalent and abandoned tenement flats were being used as shooting galleries by people injecting drugs, mostly heroin. It was not long after the Good Friday agreement had been signed and I realised that the number of drugs deaths in Scotland that year was slightly higher than the average number of violent deaths per year in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It occurred to me that if we put the same level of resources into dealing with drug problems in Scotland as the government had put into dealing with paramilitary violence in Ireland, then maybe, just maybe, we could reduce the number of people dying from drug overdoses in Scotland.

Regrettably, that level of resources was never allocated. Now, almost 25 years later, drugs deaths are ten times what they were at the turn of the millennium.

Medically supervised

One suggestion to help reduce drugs deaths is the introduction of medically supervised injecting facilities (MSIF) in Scotland. These are facilities in which people can inject illicit drugs that they have acquired elsewhere in a clean environment that is relatively safe. There are specialist healthcare professionals on site to deal with medical emergencies and to ensure that injecting is done in the least dangerous manner.

MSIFs have several aims (Bayley, Bouchard and Yant, 2017). Their primary aim is to reduce the incidence and prevalence of disease and death among people who inject drugs (PWID). In addition, MSIFs are designed to improve the public health and reduce public order problems associated with injecting illegal drugs in public places (Strike et al, 2014).

A recommendation for an MSIF to be run as pilot project was approved by Glasgow Integrated Joint Board in February 2017. After four years of legal impasse, the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC gave legal approval for the MSIF in Glasgow. Should Catholic healthcare professionals be working in this type of facility, and should the Scottish Catholic Bishops encourage the provision of this service?

Martin Murray spent most of his nursing career working with people suffering from addictions, and with homeless people. For the last five years he has been a lecturer in Adult Nursing at the University of the West of Scotland. He recently completed a PhD in practical theology at the University of Glasgow entitled ‘A Theological Justification for the Provision of Medically Supervised Injecting Facilities for People who Inject Drugs’.

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