Mum who lost son to heroin calls for legal 'consumption rooms'
A Co Antrim mother whose son died of a heroin overdose in 2013 has said it's time to legalise consumption rooms in Northern Ireland.
Penny McCanny said the rooms, which are already in place in over 100 locations across the world, including Glasgow and Dublin, could be invaluable.
"It's such a simple thing, on-one has ever died in a consumption room anywhere in the world," she said.
"Yet 10 people a day in the UK die from a drug overdose.
"We need to look at regulation too.
"If Aidan had been able to have a prescription for his heroin, he wouldn't have had to buy it off a dealer.
"He wouldn't have had to have heroin of unknown strength and had he been able to take it in a consumption room, he would still be alive.
"These two things could save lives."
The Chief Medical Officer in Northern Ireland, Dr Michael McBride, also claimed a radical rethink on how drug and alcohol addiction is treated in NI could free up huge amounts of money.
"That's likely to be over £1bn each and every year," he said.
"That's £1bn we could be spending in many, many different ways.
"These are challenging conversations we need to have.
"I understand concerns that we're making drug use easier by condoning it, but in my view that's not the case.
"What we're actually saying is that we need to understand that current approaches may not be the best approaches.
"The likes of consumption rooms provide the opportunity for healthcare professionals and others to intervene and support individuals more effectively.
"That would be in terms of signposting them into other services and support which will reduce harm and may ultimately result in them coming off their particular drug."
There has been no move towards supervised consumption rooms in Northern Ireland, but a facility is in place in Dublin.