Why father’s drug use spiralled – and now he takes them in a ‘cage’
As a homeless father, Dave says taking drugs is the only thing that puts him to sleep.
Under their influence, he’s no longer “bothered about sleeping on the streets” or “worrying about the cold”.
“If I had a nice warm flat, I’d give it up like that,” he says.
The number of people dying from drug misuse in England and Wales is at a record level, while Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe.
So could drug consumption rooms – where illegal substances are allowed to be taken under supervision – be the answer?
In Sandwell, West Midlands, Dave (not his real name) takes drugs in a disused storage unit at the back of a car park – and calls it “the cage”.
“There’s nowhere else,” he says.
He cleans the area behind the high street and locks the metal gate to prevent children getting inside, mindful of the risk of any used needles being left lying around.
Dave says he takes drugs in a space he calls ‘the cage’
“It just makes me think… what if my daughter trod on one?” he says.
He doesn’t reveal which illegal drugs he takes but says his use spiralled when he became homeless after a break-up.
He no longer sees his daughter or ex-partner.
Dave’s “cage” is one of many areas used as public injection sites across the UK – including underground car parks, stairwells and bin alleys.
A discarded syringe in a public area in Sandwell
Syringes and makeshift tourniquets lie among the fallen leaves, rubbish and debris near a bypass in Sandwell.
“It’s not difficult to understand… why people develop infections and become ill,” says Sue McCutcheon, an advanced nurse practitioner.
Drug paraphernalia is left on the floor
Drug deaths at record high
A total of 3,127 drug misuse deaths were recorded in England and Wales in 2022 – that’s an average of eight people a day.
To put this into context, it’s about the same number of people who died from stomach cancer (3,230 deaths in 2022). But the difference is drug misuse deaths are preventable.
Some 1,051 people in Scotland died from drug misuse in 2022 – its lowest number since 2017 but it remains the highest rate of any country in Europe.
These figures are also underestimates, the Office for National Statistics says, as the specific drugs involved in a death is not always known.
Drug misuse deaths are recorded as those where the underlying cause is drug abuse or drug dependence, or where any of the substances involved are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
In a bid to reduce the harm around injecting drugs, some countries have introduced overdose prevention centres (OPCs) – also known as drug consumption rooms.
A drug consumption room in Paris
There are around 200 across the world in 17 countries, and Scotland has been given the go-ahead to introduce one this year.
“Most people think inside the drug consumption room it’s fun, everybody’s coming here and doing drugs and high,” says Elisabeth Avril, a GP and director of Espace Gaia, a government-funded centre in Paris.
Most of the 150 people who visit at least once a day are people like Peter Bancelin, who is suffering from withdrawal.
“We often say we come for treatment,” he says.
Before the centre opened, Peter describes “unbearable conditions” with discarded syringes on the floor of public areas and users taking drugs “between cars (with) people passing by to bring their children to school”.
Peter Bancelin uses the drug consumption room in Paris
Inside a drug consumption room
Users enter one by one to register, pick up clean equipment and use drugs with a nurse on hand in a room with stainless steel desks, plastic chairs and needle bins.
Staff do not handle the drugs at any point. Users then have access to a “rest room” before they leave.
The centre – which is open seven days a week between 9.30am to 8.30pm – has allowed Peter to do official paperwork, find company and get off the streets.
“Little by little, it’s allowed me to get back on track,” he says.
Drug users can pick up clean equipment
A study led by Queen’s University Belfast released last month – believed to be the largest evidence review of OPCs worldwide – found they could prevent thousands of deaths and reduce the spread of serious disease.
But the UK government does not support their use and they won’t be allowed in England and Wales over concerns they risk condoning and encouraging the use of illegal drugs.
And not everyone is on board with drug consumption rooms in Paris. There were protests from some residents after the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, signalled she would open four more drug consumption rooms in the French capital.
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“Drug policy is not based on evidence – it’s more based on people’s moral preferences,” says Dr Alex Stevens, a criminal justice professor at Kent University, who used to be on the government’s drug advisory committee.
“There’s nobody claiming that an overdose prevention centre is going to solve all the problems we have with drugs.
“But for the people who are most vulnerable to dying, that’s something that can help them continue to stay alive so they can get their lives together.”
In Sandwell, Dave says he would be worried about the police if a drug consumption room was to open near him.
“Where are you going if you’re looking for a shoplifter?” he asks.
Drones deliver overdose treatment
An innovation aimed at reducing drug deaths
One innovation that has been trialled in the UK with the aim of reducing drug deaths is the use of drones to deliver naloxone, a life-saving medicine which acts quickly to reverse an overdose of opioid drugs such as heroin.
“If somebody is having an overdose, we need to get it to them within at least seven minutes and quicker if possible,” says Dr Paul Royall, a senior lecturer at Kings College London, whose researchers have teamed up with HeroTech8.
When someone calls 999, the call operator activates an emergency response along with the drone, which is expected to beat the ambulance to the scene, allowing the caller to administer the naloxone nasal spray before paramedics arrive.
Life-saving nasal spray is delivered by drone
“So the idea is this reaches the patient first and gives them a bit of extra time so the ambulance can get there and actually really save them,” says Dr Royall.
The team is currently working with drug users in Gosport, on the south coast of Hampshire, before conducting a real-life trial later this year, with a plan to develop the next phase in areas with the most need in the UK.
It estimates delivery costs would be similar to a small Amazon drone delivery – expected to be between £25 and £75 – but says a large-scale roll-out could further bring prices down.
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A government spokesperson said: “We are determined to provide those caught in the clutches of addiction with the right support to turn their lives around.
“Our 10-year drug strategy, backed by a record £3bn funding, is tackling both supply and demand for illegal drugs by building a world-class treatment system, alongside relentlessly pursuing and dismantling criminal networks.
“We have already increased the number of people in drug and alcohol treatment by over 17,000, recruited 1,255 drug and alcohol workers and are expanding the availability of life-saving naloxone to prevent more tragic deaths.”
Many Labour MPs have been left shellshocked after the chaotic political self-sabotage of the past week.
Bafflement, anger, disappointment, and sheer frustration are all on relatively open display at the circular firing squad which seems to have surrounded the prime minister.
The botched effort to flush out backroom plotters and force Wes Streeting to declare his loyalty ahead of the budget has instead led even previously loyal Starmerites to predict the PM could be forced out of office before the local elections in May.
“We have so many councillors coming up for election across the country,” one says, “and at the moment it looks like they’re going to be wiped out. That’s our base – we just can’t afford to lose them. I like Keir [Starmer] but there’s only a limited window left to turn things around. There’s a real question of urgency.”
Another criticised a “boys club” at No 10 who they claimed have “undermined” the prime minister and “forgotten they’re meant to be serving the British people.”
There’s clearly widespread muttering about what to do next – and even a degree of enviousness at the lack of a regicidal 1922 committee mechanism, as enjoyed by the Tories.
“Leadership speculation is destabilising,” one said. “But there’s really no obvious strategy. Andy Burnham isn’t even an MP. You’d need a stalking horse candidate and we don’t have one. There’s no 1922. It’s very messy.”
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Starmer’s faithfuls are ‘losing faith’
Others are gunning for the chancellor after months of careful pitch-rolling for manifesto-breaching tax rises in the budget were ripped up overnight.
“Her career is toast,” one told me. “Rachel has just lost all credibility. She screwed up on the manifesto. She screwed up on the last two fiscal events, costing the party huge amounts of support and leaving the economy stagnating.
“Having now walked everyone up the mountain of tax rises and made us vote to support them on the opposition day debate two days ago, she’s now worried her job is at risk and has bottled it.
“Talk to any major business or investor and they are holding off investing in the UK until it is clear what the UK’s tax policy is going to be, putting us in a situation where the chancellor is going to have to go through this all over again in six months – which just means no real economic growth for another six months.”
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Why is the economy flatlining?
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After less than 18 months in office, the government is stuck in a political morass largely of its own making.
Treasury sources have belatedly argued that the chancellor’s pre-budget change of heart on income tax is down to better-than-expected economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
That should be a cause of celebration. The question is whether she and the PM are now too damaged to make that case to the country – and rescue their benighted prospects.
UK
Home secretary vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers – as Denmark-based reforms to be unveiled
The home secretary is set to unveil sweeping measures to tackle illegal migration, vowing to end the UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers.
People granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, in the changes expected to be unveiled on Monday by Shabana Mahmood.
Modelled on the Danish system, the aim is to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants and make it easier to deport them.
Planned changes mean that refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review, with refugees removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.
The Home Office said the “golden ticket” deal has seen asylum claims surge in the UK, drawing people across Europe, through safe countries, onto dangerous small boats.
Under current UK rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.
As part of the changes, the statutory legal duty to provide asylum seeker support, including housing and weekly allowances, will be revoked.
The government will seek to remove asylum support, including accommodation and handouts, to those who have a right to work and who can support themselves but choose not to or those who break UK law.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Pic: PA
‘Last chance for a decent politics’
A government source said Ms Mahmood believes her reforms are about “more than the electoral fortunes of her party”.
“This is the last chance for a decent, mainstream politics. If these moderate forces fail, she believes, something darker will follow,” they said.
“But this demands that moderates are willing to do things that will seem immoderate to some. She has reminded those who are reluctant to embrace her ambition for bold reform, with an ultimatum: ‘if you don’t like this, you won’t like what follows me.'”
Ms Mahmood said they were the most sweeping changes to the asylum system “in a generation”, as she vowed the government will “restore order and control to our borders”.
The home secretary also told The Sunday Times that “I can see – and I know my colleagues can – that illegal migration is tearing our country apart”.
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What Sky News witnessed after tip-off about migrant crossings
Could Danish model save Labour’s bacon?
System being ‘gamed’
The source said Ms Mahmood believes the system is being “gamed by those travelling on boats or abusing legal visas”.
Some 39,075 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey across the Channel so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.
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The gangs smuggling people to the UK
That is an increase of 19% on the same point in 2024 and up 43% on 2023, but remains 5% lower than at the equivalent point in 2022, which remains the peak year for crossings.
What happened in Denmark?
The UK government points to Denmark remaining a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, while also cutting the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and successfully removing 95% of rejected asylum seekers.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Labour government has “lost control” of the UK’s borders” with illegal channel crossings “surging to over 62,000 since the election”.
He said some of the new measures were welcome but “they stop well short of what is really required and some are just yet more gimmicks – like the previous ‘smash the gangs’ gimmick”.
Mr Philp added: “Only the Conservative borders plan will end illegal immigration – by leaving the ECHR, banning asylum claims for illegal immigrants, deporting all illegal arrivals within a week and establishing a Removals Force to deport 150,000 illegal immigrants each year.”
And Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said: “These sweeping changes will not deter people from making dangerous crossings, but they will unfairly prevent men, women and children from putting down roots and integrating into British life.”
Ms Mahmood will be appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
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