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Estate addicts ‘need haven’
ESTATES around the Queen’s Crescent area are so riddled with drug addicts that the Town Hall must provide a safe haven where they can get their fixes, a public meeting has heard.
But Conservative councillor Keith Sedgwick said a centre for addicts would be introduced “over my dead body”.
He added: “Why do we need to provide another place to take their drugs when they already have their own homes? It would only encourage addicts to come to the area. The drug dealers are there to satisfy the needs of these council house tenants who already take drugs.”
The view at a Gospel Oak meeting last week was that the best way to tackle the drugs problem would be to open up the Lismore Circus health centre as a “shooting gallery”, where addicts could use drugs, receive prescriptions and access health services.
Last year, residents and councillors in Bloomsbury blocked an attempt to turn a former public toilet under the Centrepoint office block in Tottenham Court Road into a needle exchange for addicts.
But at last Wednesday’s meeting, part of a Town Hall project to consider what people want from the council, many residents backed suggestions that addicts should be offered help.
Mary Barnes, a retired social worker who has lived in Oak Village for 10 years, said: “The health centre would be an ideal venue for a walk-in service, where addicts could be prescribed drugs and could get their fixes.
“It is like Prohibition in America in the 1920s. The drug laws have created a number of mini-Al Capones in Gospel Oak. This just gives the dealers the upper hand.”
Another Conservative councillor, Chris Phelps, said: “I want to see better law enforcement, dealers kicked out of their council houses and more police officers in the area. Treatment has a role, but it is a secondary stage.”
Health centre manager Ann Heffernman said she would support the idea if the Primary Care Trust (PCT) backed it.
Town Hall community safety executive member Lib Dem councillor Ben Rawlings said he was also keen to explore the idea.
He added: “If addicts are shooting up on people’s doorsteps then this is a law-and-order issue. But to tackle these problems in the longer term we need to look at treatment.” |
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