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Drugs In The Highlands |
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Health Services In Highland
Increase Activity To Help Drug Users |
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Injecting Drug Users in the
Highlands are putting themselves at risk of catching a range of serious
infectious diseases as a result of sharing injecting equipment and
unprotected sex. This was a key finding of a report that the Health
Board commissioned last year into patterns of injecting drug use in
Highland. Dr John Wrench, Director of Public Health and Health Policy for NHS Highland outlined the report which was carried out by the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) over the past year. Behavioural Patterns of
Drug Users In Highland 46% of injecting drug users in Highland have shared needles and syringes with someone else in the previous six months. Even higher levels shared spoons, filters and water in the process of injecting. This wide use of sharing ‘paraphernalia’ connected to injecting, indicates that drug users are at risk of contracting diseases like Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV. “Clearly we are concerned”, said John Wrench, “that drug users in Highland are at risk of contracting and transmitting very significant infections because of practices outlined in this report. We will be re-doubling our efforts within NHS Highland to ensure that clear and targeted information gets out to injecting drug users and their partners. Equally we will be exploring more ways of getting injecting equipment to drug users on an exchange basis. We have already committed over £100,000 extra over the next 3 years for a range of initiatives including expansion of needle/syringe exchange, a Hepatitis B immunisation programme more community services and extra work with prisoners with drug problems. Further treatment money - an extra £134,000 - has also been highlighted to support more nurses to work in this field and to support BLAST! the young persons drug project. So we are taking this very seriously and determined that we will make an impact on these issues”. Chairman of the Highland Drug and Alcohol Strategy Group, Councillor Ian Ross said, “Drug users in Highland need to be given every opportunity to stop taking drugs and adopt a healthier lifestyle. But for those who are currently caught up in drug taking and who find it hard to stop, then we need to ensure that they are kept as healthy as possible. The Strategy Group will look at this report in detail and will consider the challenges it raises for all agencies in Highland”. |
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2000 Fast Forward Drugs info for young people and training for adults. Drugscope
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