Covid 19 & People Who Use Drugs : The Dual Public Health Emergency

COVID has brought a new urgency to the drug crisis: Disapproval is no excuse for inaction.

The drug crisis rarely gets a fair hearing in the UK. COVID-19 calls for a re-evaluation of that convention. If we truly want to save the NHS, we must support the most vulnerable; that includes those that use drugs ‘problematically’.

 

Excluded from mainstream political debate - as per usual - substance users have not been acknowledged as a high-risk cohort, but thanks to a set of failing drug policies, they are facing a dual public health emergency: Coronavirus and the ongoing drug crisis.

 

At the intersection of these crises lies significant threats. For those dependent on drugs in the UK - roughly 320,000 people - COVID carries not only the risk of infection, which is more likely, but also the danger of an increasingly toxic drug supply and the possibility of severe withdrawal symptoms.

 

As border closures and travel restrictions continue to take their toll, the drug market will contract. This means less drugs, but if you think that’s a good thing, think again. A suffocated drug market is an infinitely more dangerous one. During the notably severe heroin drought of 2010/2011, there was a marked rise in drug-related hospitalisations in areas across the UK. Put bluntly, coronavirus is likely to increase the chance of overdose, putting users and the health care systems on which they rely at risk.

 

In response to a letter from Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, the Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, regarding drug supply, Priti Patel committed to safeguarding prescriptions for those currently in treatment. In the context of the UK’s punitive drug laws and the government’s refusal to even contemplate harm reduction measures, this is positive. But it is not the grand mitigation plan it may seem.

 

Estimates suggest that only ten percent of those that need treatment actually access it, meaning the vast majority are ineligible for the additional support outlined. To truly mitigate the risk to users, and protect our already overstrained hospitals, the Government must go much further. As several number ten mishaps have shown, now is not the time for half measures.

 

In British Columbia, eligibility for access to a safe supply has been extended beyond those in treatment. As well as providing access to rapid action addiction clinics, the Canadian province will ensure that everyone with a history of ongoing active use can access pharmaceutical alternatives via a home delivery service. This is a good example of risk mitigation. Not a free for all, or hand-me-out for a good time, but a system that will keep people safe and hospital beds clear.

The ideological barriers that have long prevented drug policy reform are no match for this dual public health emergency. If “we are going to do it together”, as the Government said last week, the honourable “we” must include those that are dependent on drugs. Should the government continue to ignore the problem it has helped to create, it may as well start building another hospital already - it will need it.

Lola Brittain is an Ambassador for the Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform. Tweets @LolaBrittain

Jay Jackson