Policy
Calls for UK Government to pilot Overdose Prevention Centres
Public health professionals have called on the Government to take action on the record number of drug deaths in the UK.

Published
2 years agoon

As the UK sees a record number of drug overdose deaths, calls have been made for the Government to pilot Overdose Prevention Centres in a bid to end the national crisis.
The Faculty of Public Health (FPH), a membership organisation of public health professionals across the UK and around the world, has led a cross-sector call for the UK Government to pilot Overdose Prevention Centres (OPCs).
70 organisations and a number of individual signatories have made the call, stating they can “no longer accept the UK’s record number of drug-related deaths without implementing all available evidence-based interventions to save lives and protect health.”
The UK saw a record number of drug-related deaths in 2020, a total of 4,561 in England and Wales – a number up by 3.8 per cent from 2019. According to the Government’s statistics, approximately half of all 2020 drug deaths involved opiates.
The call follows the Government’s announcement of a decade-long crackdown on drugs, which will see a record amount of funding to help people get treatment for their drug use. The FPH call states the plan “fails to go far enough in implementing a full public health approach as they do not include setting up Overdose Prevention Centres (OPCs).”
It continues to say: “Drug deaths are avoidable, and it is unacceptable that we see evidence-based actions to prevent harm such as OPCs go unutilised in the UK.”
Non-profit drug reform organisation, Drug Science, has signed the call along with reform organisation Release Drugs, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the British Medical Association (BMA) Board of Science and more.
Speaking to Psychedelic Health, Drug Science CEO, David Badcock, commented: “Safer Injecting Facilities (SIFs) will save lives, and help to build a strong, trusting relationship between healthcare professionals and people with entrenched drug problems. Evidence from around the world proves this. And because of that supportive relationship, people could be helped to overcome an addiction for the very first time.
“Drug deaths have recently hit record levels. That’s why we fully support the Faculty of Public Health’s calls, and it’s why we set up the Drug Science Enhanced Harm Reduction Working Group in 2020 – to further build the evidence base and to make clear, once and for all, that SIFs are a rational, effective and humane response to an escalating crisis.”
Last week, Drug Science responded to the Government’s new drug strategy to say it must “adopt a rational, evidence-based approach of drug control” and that other policies must be pursued in parallel of the strategy.
This included the development and provision of new approaches to addiction treatment, including increasing research into promising alternatives such as psilocybin and ketamine, and piloting safe injection rooms, which have been proven to save lives.
Drug Science has joined the @FPH and 65 other organisations to call for Government to pilot Overdose Prevention Centres. With drug deaths at their highest since records began, we must implement all available evidence-based interventions to save lives https://t.co/zapghikQs5
— Drug Science (ISCD) (@Drug_Science) December 12, 2021
Recent research has suggested that psychedelics may hold promise in treating a variety of substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder (OUD), however, research into psychedelics in the UK is difficult due to the scheduling of the substances.
The Drug Science Medical Psychedelics Working Group has highlighted that: “…current UK regulations have created serious and considerable barriers to legitimate research associated with Schedule 1 regulations. While current legislation does not preclude scientific research with these drugs, it does make them significantly more difficult, time-consuming and costly to study.”
The FPH call highlights that there is available evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of OPCs in preventing deaths and facilitating patient referrals to treatment services, including “the adoption of safer injecting practices to reduce blood-borne virus transmission.”
The organisations state: “…we also see no evidence linking OPCs to increased drug use, criminal activity, or associated policing problems. Indeed, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee on drug policy, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce, and the Independent Working Group on Drug Consumption rooms have all recognised the clear evidence in support of Overdose Prevention Centres as an effective public health intervention.”
The Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group (CDPRG) has also joined the call.
The @CDPRGUK is proud to join @FPH, @rcpsych and others in this cross-sector call to save lives. “#Drugdeaths are avoidable, and it is unacceptable that we see #evidencebased actions to prevent #harm such as OPCs go unutilised in the UK.” https://t.co/RDccWVCpVU
— Crispin Blunt MP (@CrispinBlunt) December 13, 2021
The call concludes to sat that: “With numbers of drug deaths consistently rising for the past seven years, it is clear that current strategies to tackle this crisis are failing to deliver for populations across the UK. Unless the Government follows the evidence to take further action, we are likely to see these rates of preventable deaths continue to rise.
“With evidence supporting the effectiveness of OPCs as a harm reduction measure, we call on Government to take steps towards funding pilots on their implementation to save lives and reduce harm.”
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Policy
Now is the time for psychedelic access, says campaigner

Published
2 weeks agoon
21st November 2023By
News Editor
Activists in Oakland recently filed a ballot put forward by Dave Hodges seeking to legalise safe and legal access to psychedelics for therapeutic uses.
In the face of critics, Hodges has said now is the time for safe access to psychedelics.
The Psychedelic Wellness & Healing Initiative would enable the sale, possession and use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes if passed. Psychedelics that would be allowed under the ballot include Psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, and Mescaline.
If passed, the initiative would give doctors and mental health specialists the right to recommend psychedelics to ease the debilitating symptoms of a range of problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidality and traumatic brain injury (TBI), among others.
Hodges has said: “Now is the time for safe, controlled medical access for patients in need. The way to solve the problem is not by continuing to ignore it.”
Hodges’ solution is to create a structure for use that includes proper dosages and access to experts who can help users benefit from appropriate treatment.
The updated initiative language emphasises safety, and gives doctors and mental health specialists the right to recommend psychedelics to ease the debilitating symptoms of a range of conditions.
Research by the University of Michigan and Columbia University shows non-LSD hallucinogenic use on the rise and Hodges has stated that increase means that the initiative providing guidelines for use is needed more than ever.
Hodges said he hopes Californians will read the initiative, share their thoughts about it over the holiday week and offer feedback via the initiative website, PW4CA.com, by 27 November, 2023, the deadline for modifications.
“Now is the time to provide medical and therapeutic access to psychedelics,” Hodges said. “The way to do this is through the initiative.”
Policy
Transform Drugs releases groundbreaking book: How to regulate psychedelics

Published
3 weeks agoon
15th November 2023
UK charity Transform Drug Policy Foundation has published a new book ‘How to Regulate Psychedelics: A Practical Guide’ that sets out how psychedelics can be legalised and regulated for non-medical adult use.
While an increasing amount of research is pointing to the potentially beneficial effects of psychedelic treatment on mental health conditions, many people across the globe are using psychedelics outside of the clinical setting.
The book includes a set of proposals for post-prohibition policies, covering psychedelics including psilocybin, LSD, DMT and Mescaline.
Previously, Transform’s guides on regulating stimulants and cannabis have been used to advise governments around the world on drug policy. This book seeks to inform the debates on psychedelic drug reforms taking place across the world.
Co-author and Public Affairs and Policy Manager at Transform Drug Policy Foundation, Ester Kincová, stated: “Despite psychedelic drugs being illegal, their non-medical use within society has been steadily increasing.
“Punitive enforcement has not decreased use or eliminated supply, but it has made use more unsafe.
“Legalising and regulating psychedelics is a pragmatic move to reduce harm. This is no longer a theoretical debate, states in the US are already recognising the need and making moves to regulate for non-medical adult use.”
Scientific Chair of Drug Science, Professor David Nutt, added: “Once again Transform have come up with a well thought out and practical plan for the regulation of another group of currently illegal drugs – in this case psychedelics.
“Their ideas would be both easy to implement and to engage with and will, if adopted, radically enhance the safe use of these remarkable agents.”
Proposals for regulation
The book includes a four-tiered regulation model “that attempts to manage the variety of psychedelic preparations and the different ways in which they are used”.
These include:
- Private use, home cultivation, foraging and not-for-profit sharing.
- Membership-based non-for-profit associations for plant-based products.
- Licensed production and retail adaptable to different products and environments
- Regulated commercial guided or supervised use
Additionally, a decriminalisation model is proposed which suggests that possession for personal use should no longer be an offence of any kind or be subject to any sanctions; Drugs for personal use should not be confiscated; cultivation of small amounts of plant-based drugs for personal use should be decriminalised, among other suggestions.
The book also includes topics such as embedding social justice, equity and human rights into policy design, how to think about psychedelics regulation, why regulate psychedelics and why now, and psychedelics and the UN drug treaties.
To read the book, please visit transformdrugs.org/.
Policy
Oakland ballot seeks to legalise medical psychedelics

Published
1 month agoon
30th October 2023By
News Editor
Activists in Oakland have filed a ballot that seeks to legalise safe and legal access to psychedelics for therapeutic uses.
The Psychedelic Wellness & Healing Initiative would enable the sale, possession and use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes if passed. Psychedelics that would be allowed under the ballot include Psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, and Mescaline.
If passed, the initiative would give doctors and mental health specialists the right to recommend psychedelics to ease the debilitating symptoms of a range of problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidality and traumatic brain injury (TBI), among others.
Additionally, it would create a statewide framework for regulating the possession, use, cultivation and production of substances for medical and therapeutic use.
The initiative has been introduced by proponent and founder of the Oakland-based Church of Ambrosia, Dave Hodges, to the California Attorney General’s office for the 2024 ballot, and will need 546,651 valid signatures to qualify.
The filing follows California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent veto of Senate Bill 58, the bill that sought to decriminalise the use of certain psychedelic drugs.
Hodges emphasised that SB58 would have been a step forward, but that it had major flaws concerning its lack of provisions to ensure access, public safety and quality control. That veto, Hodges said, compelled him to move quickly on the initiative filing.
When the California Attorney General certifies the initiative for circulation, backers will have about four and a half months to gather the required signatures for ballot placement.
Signature collecting will begin in early December.
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