The UK's first ever operational Overdose Prevention Centre (OPC), where people might one day be allowed to take drugs while supervised, hope the people behind it, is coming to Llanelli Town Centre.
The OPC, also known as a 'Supervised Drug Consumption Room' will be coming to the town on March 14, 2022, to showcase what one could look like locally.
Those behind the initiative claim the converted ambulance has previously been used, unofficially, to supervise more than 1,000 injections by people using illegal drugs in Glasgow and treat multiple overdoses.
Read more: The most crime-ridden streets in llanelli
Some areas of Llanelli do have a reputation for drug use, including cases of county lines - where drugs gangs in larger cities target their products at smaller cities and towns.
Last year, fourteen people were fined after being caught with cannabis in the Llanelli area within the first six months. This month, WalesOnline reported how a drugs gang took over a vulnerable woman's flat in Llanelli to sell crack cocaine and heroin in January, 2022.
Since 1993, 194 people have died in Carmarthenshire from drug misuse and the death rate as a result of drugs is 5.4, higher than England's average of 5.
Some claim that if drug use is brought out into the open, in supervised settings, there will be fewer deaths. Others claim any official sanction making drug use legal will make the problem even more widespread.
Peter Krykant, made headlines around the world when he ran a converted ambulance in Glasgow as an unofficial facility for the city centre’s population of injecting drug users - the most vulnerable to overdose death.
Now working for service provider, Cranstoun, he wants to see OPCs opening across the country. They would be hygienic spaces where instead of injecting in the street, people use their drugs while supervised by staff trained to treat any overdoses. They would provide sterile needles, basic healthcare and can refer people to drug treatment and other services.
Mr Krykant said: “When I started the Overdose Prevention Service in 2020 it was always about showing that our drug laws are outdated and not fit for purpose. Little did I know we would gain national and international support.
"Operating four days a week, and supervising around five injections per hour as well as helping reverse a number of overdoses that could have been fatal, we achieved a lot. However, given the scale of mass street injecting, discarded needles, deaths and other health issues, we now need official sites across the UK. That must include Llanelli."
The initiative has been welcomed by Pat Hudson, of Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control, whose son Kevin died in a locked toilet in Carmarthen town centre in December, 2017.
She said: “With the UK experiencing record levels of overdose deaths we need to start introducing innovative harm reduction measures, like Peter's van, to stop our loved ones from dying. No-one has ever died in an Overdose Prevention Centre.
"I believe my son would be alive today, and several of his friends, had there been such a centre here in Carmarthen: somewhere safe for him to go. Even in a small community like ours, an Overdose Prevention Centre would save several lives every year. It would also provide advice to those concerned about their drug use and help to break down the stigma that limits the effectiveness of other harm reduction measures.”
The OPC, will be at Llanelli Town Centre (Central Square, Vaughan Street) between 1:30pm and 4pm.
Local people will be invited to see inside the OPC and learn how it works and will be met by families from Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control, who will lay 4,335 homemade forget-me-not flowers and give speeches at a memorial event to mark the lives of those who have been lost to what the organisers claim are failed drugs laws, in the last year.
Martin Powell, of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said: “Over 150 Overdose Prevention Centres operate worldwide. There is consistent evidence they are effective in reducing harms, and that they give local police a mechanism to address street injection drug use in a way that promotes public safety. With the agreement of local police, Llanelli can, and should, open one now - with or without Government permission.”
To get the latest WalesOnline newsletters emailed to you directly for free click here.
