Justice minister calls for rethink on tackling illegal drugs

Justice Minister Naomi Long has said the "war on drugs has not been won" and there needs to be a rethink of how illegal drugs are dealt with in Northern Ireland.

On Wednesday, Long visited The People's Kitchen, a Belfast drop-in centre for those experiencing homelessness and drug addiction.

She said her personal view is that having drug consumption rooms, where drug users can safely inject, would be a step forward.

But she said as an executive, ministers need to start taking a new approach.

"The fact that we have 50% increase in drug deaths over the last 10 years should be a concern to everyone," she added.

"So whatever we are doing it is not enough to stop drug consumption.

"We have got to look at another way to keep people safe."

A safer injecting facility allows drug users to inject substances like heroin under the supervision of trained medical staff.

Its aim is to reduce overdoses and drug-related harm as well as making drug use less visible to the community.

In March 2023, Belfast City Councillors voted to pass a motion to set up a safe injecting facility to help prevent overdoses, but it has not gone any further.

Long said that as justice minister her job is "to uphold the law as it currently stands and that is the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971".

"That is a reserved matter, it is not something we can change in Northern Ireland, it would have to be changed UK-wide," she added.

"But, I also have to recognise that that enforcement policy, whilst it's good from removing drugs from the system and dealing with those people who are actually dealing the drugs and supplying the drugs, what it isn't doing is providing the therapeutic and medical attention to the people who need it."

Long said the arrest and detention of people, who have drug addictions, and stigmatising drug use "is not necessarily going to provide us with anyway to transform people's lives".

"I am happy to raise the issue of safer injecting facilities, I think we need to at least try this," she said.

Drugs laws are set at Westminster, not Stormont.

However, Scotland opened the first UK drug consumption room in January.

This scheme can only go ahead because Scotland's senior prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, announced a change in policy which meant users would not be prosecuted for possessing illegal drugs while at the facility.

The UK government said it had no plans to introduce other consumption rooms, but it would not interfere in the Glasgow project.

Ms Long said Northern Ireland does not have the same opportunities as Scotland in terms of being able to unilaterally change the law.

"Enforcement currently is the only option currently open to us," she said.

"But what we can do, both Mike Nesbitt as Health Minister and myself attend meetings with the Home Office and with our counterparts in Scotland and Wales and we discuss these issues.

"If we can get agreement around the Executive table we could raise this at those meetings and explore with the government whether or not there are opportunities even to pilot something like this [injecting facility] in Northern Ireland."