LETTER OF THE DAY: '˜Drug shooting galleries' - good or bad?

Personally, I feel that any initiative that tackles drug addiction realistically, rather than a head in the sand ‘all drugs are terrible, ban them all’ approach must be welcomed.

On the other hand I see the introduction of ‘shooting galleries’ – safe, hygienic places to inject will not only fail to address the issue, that failure will be used by the strident ‘no drugs’ lobby as a stick to beat the reformers around the head with.

See, we tried and it did no good; let’s get more hard line instead’.

One of the problems is that all drugs, heroin in particular have a certain mystique/ritual.

There’s the scoring, the burning/shooting up and the effect.

The provision of ‘safe places’ undermines this mystique.

Perhaps my biggest concern over their likely failure however is the hope/expectations voiced that designated galleries will reduce/end the scourge of needles in parks and other public places.

I lived in Frankfurt, Germany for eight months where there is well-established shooting gallery provision and the parks were still full of needles – not just in the bushes but on the grass where kids played.

Galleries are a good thing, sure, but in isolation yet might actually make matters slightly worse in the long run.

Nick Haines

Allaway Avenue, Paulsgrove