Drug booths to be installed in UK night clubs

Drug booths to be installed in UK night clubs

Drug booths are going to be installed in Lancashire night clubs by the Preston police. The point of the booths is so that club goers and potential drug takers can test the purity and/or toxicity of the drugs that they are about to take.

This is an effort to protect anyone from taking drugs that could be harmful or cause them to overdose. Preston is the first place in the UK to offer this kind of service. People will be able to check the quality of their drugs on Friday and Saturday nights.

They insist that the booths are not about punishing people but to help reduce harm.

Officialdom

Professor of criminology at Durham University and co-director of the Loop, the non-profit company Fiona Measham said…

“It’s a very new service and some people might see it as quite radical, but it’s focusing on harm reduction.”

This is where things get a little hazy though. According to reports, the service is legal because those carrying out the service won’t be handling the drugs and because any substances tested are going to be destroyed.

There are also criticisms of this project. There is the argument that the booths will normalise drug taking and that drugs in all forms are harmful and not safe at all.

Professor Neil McKeganey, founder of the Centre for Substance Use Research at Glasgow University said…

“I am staggered this is being contemplated, the police are advocating a view which one would not unfairly describe as facilitating drug use. By implication the green light has been given by the authorities to consumption. It’s hard to see how this isn’t an absolute breach of our current drugs laws.”

The UK National Police Chief Council is not completely onboard either. They say that the project could be useful but that they don’t fully endorse it for national use.

 Sourced