Recommendation 41

HM Government Rejected

The Government does not accept these recommendations. Our 10-year Drug Strategy, From Harm to Hope, is focused on reducing drug use, addiction, and drug-related crime. It is underpinned by a record investment of over £3 billion over the first three years of delivery to break drug supply chains, deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system and achieve a generational shift in the demand for drugs. The Government does not support the establishment of safe consumption facilities, often referred to as drug consumption rooms. There is no legal framework for the provision of drug consumption rooms and the Government has no plans to create one. Anyone operating within a drug consumption room would be committing a number of offences, including possession of controlled drugs and being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs. The police have a duty to investigate such offences and to take action where necessary. Enabling drug consumption rooms would also condone and facilitate the use of illegal drugs. The Government has a zero-tolerance approach to illicit drug use and its harms. Instead, we are focused on preventing drug deaths through evidence-based interventions like the expansion of naloxone, and needle and syringe programmes, increasing the number of high-quality treatment places available in a recovery-orientated system of care in every part of the country, continuing to build a high-quality workforce and improving the quality of psychosocial interventions. Furthermore, the Government is taking robust action to break drug supply chains, through the dismantling of County Lines drug trafficking networks and targeting the operations of the key organised criminal groups involved in drug supply. In addition, the Government is increasing drug seizures at the border, and will increase drug testing on arrest and pilot out of court disposals as one of the suite of tools the police have to address drug misuse. We are also working with law enforcement to target visible drug use such as cannabis through our zero-tolerance approach, and in March 2023, the Government launched a plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour.