Peter Krykant and Safer Drug Consumption Facilities - Write to your MP

Write to your MP to ask them to sign EDM 1079 to allow Safer Drug Consumption Facilities

We need your help -following the arrest of Peter Krykant, who had set up a drug consumption van in Glasgow, MP’s called an Early Day Motion to urge the Government to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to allow for Safer Drug Consumption Facilities (SDCF) to legally operate in the UK.

The UK has seen record levels of drug related deaths for the 7th year in a row, Scotland has the highest in the developed world.

Please write to your MP to ask them to sign the EDM to save lives now.

Need some help? You can copy our template email, do personalise it, add your story or write your own email. Click the button below to visit the UK parliament website, where you can find your MP’s email address. Please bcc info@anyoneschild.org into all emails, and forward any response to us so that we can keep track of which MPs are contacted, and what they say.

Please remember to include your address to guarantee you get a reply!

If you do one thing to help shift drug policy and save lives this is it! Check out our guide for ‘How to meet with your MP’ and become an empowered drug policy activist today.

Find your MP

Dear <your MP’s name>

RE: Peter Krykant and drug consumption van facility, EDM 1079

I am writing as your constituent to ask you to sign EDM 1079. It calls for a change in the Misuse of Drugs Act to allow the opening of supervised drug consumption facilities. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/57649

I am deeply saddened, as I’m sure you are, by the UK seeing record levels of drug-related deaths for 7 years in a row, with Scotland having the highest level in the developed world. Every one of those thousands of lost lives is an avoidable tragedy, leaving a bereaved family behind. When drug deaths far exceed road deaths, a new approach is needed. For some of the stories behind these deaths, and to hear from families calling for reform please visit the Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control website https://anyoneschild.org/

‘Safer drug consumption facilities’ are widely used in at least a dozen other countries, including almost 100 in Canada alone. They are hygienic, clinic-like spaces where people are able to take illegal drugs under the supervision of trained staff, who immediately treat any overdoses. That is why no one has ever died in one, anywhere in the world, despite many millions of injections occurring, with tens of thousands of overdoses managed.

They also provide a route for very marginalised people to be referred to drug treatment, and other support. Getting people who would not otherwise engage into treatment is crucial to providing a long term solution for them, and to reduce illegal drug use.

Supervised drug consumption facilities also reduce HIV infections because they provide clean equipment, which is safely discarded – reducing street injecting, and discarded needles. This benefits local communities and businesses as well. They also save more money than they cost, by reducing pressures on health services and police.

That is also why many health bodies and expert groups from the Royal Society for Public Health, to the Government’s expert advisers the ACMD, back them, as do multiple Police and Crime Commissioners.

Attached is a short briefing with more information, and you will find more on this subject here https://transformdrugs.org/overdose-prevention-centres/ including a map of existing supervised drug consumption facilities.

To reiterate, please consider signing this EDM, and please urge the Government to allow us to join other countries in saving lives, by opening these proven facilities here.

Your sincerely,