A Plea From The Homeless Injecting Drug Users Of Cardiff:

Safer Injecting Facilities, globally know as Drug Consumption Rooms (DCR’s) have been in operation since 1986. The first official site was opened in Berne, Switzerland, based on the British model of harm reduction. DCR’s offer a safe and sterile environment for people to inject illicit drugs under the supervision of trained staff. Over the past 30 years a large body of evidence has amounted proving the success and vital role that DCR’s play in reducing the spread of blood borne viruses (Hepatitis & HIV), minimizing public injecting and discarded paraphernalia within communities and saving the NHS/criminal justice system money and resources (The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2018).

When restrictions hit in March 2020 we, the homeless injecting drug users of Cardiff did all we could to follow the science. Despite our complex issues and chaotic lives we did our best to follow the science and protect the vulnerable... 

But what about us? We are also vulnerable, we are looked down on and deemed so unworthy of empathy that all the tragedy and trauma we have faced, the mental health issues and despair is dismissed because we're "Junkies" who chose this life...

No one chooses this life.

Recovered Drug addicts are showered with praise but you can't recover if your dead and so many of us never get the chance to reach our full potential as the help we need to stabilise our drug use and address our issues is withheld because of the governments moral stance on drugs. 

How can Morals trump Science? Where are our rights? 

Article 2 of the human rights act states, “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.”

We are dying. We are sick. We need understanding - Not judgement..

Please Support Our Petition, 

We Can't Recover If We're Dead.