Bristol has been formally declared a “city of harm reduction”, with local politicians pledging to focus on helping and treating users of illegal drugs rather than punishing them.
Green councillors, who lead the city council, said the declaration was a clear signal that public health rather than criminal justice solutions were needed to tackle the UK’s growing drugs crisis.
They hope the declaration will put pressure on the Labour government to rethink drug policies and, specifically, lead to a legal drug-consumption facility being set up in the city.
The move, which has been backed by Bristol Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors, has been rejected by Tory members, who argue it is “ideologically framed”. Nationally, the Greens advocate legalising and regulating drugs.
The Bristol Green councillor Cara Lavan, who lost her partner, Jake Coe, 37, to drug overdose poisoning, said it felt like an important moment. “I hope other local authorities will take note and follow suit to create a domino effect that tells the government we need change,” she said.
Lavan said Coe had been in recovery for five years but when he relapsed was able to buy heroin and crack within half an hour, despite living in a new place where he did not know dealers. “The prohibition didn’t stop him getting hold of it.”
Jake Coe, pictured in 2013. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian
The couple had a baby and he was about to qualify as an arts psychotherapist. Lavan said: “We were unable to get the help we needed because the drugs he was using were illicit and there was the constant threat he would be arrested and criminalised. He desperately wanted to be drug free, but he just wasn’t able to cope and he couldn’t get support.
“What we need is sensible, evidence-led drug policies. There’s overwhelming evidence that the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 has failed. Drug treatment agencies, police forces, health professionals across the country know that our drug policies actively work against solving many of the problems that we have.”
The declaration was agreed at a full council meeting. The motion setting it out noted that deaths from drug poisoning were at an all-time high and in Bristol almost twice the national rate. It stated that the drug market was rapidly evolving, with a growing supply of dangerous super-strength synthetic opioids.
Bristol and other cities have taken a harm-reduction approach for some time, but Lavan said she felt the formal declaration was an important step forward.
Bristol Green councillors want the city to be allowed to open a drug-consumption facility, as has happened in Glasgow. Lavan said: “It’s not encouraging people to use drugs, but it’s about making sure that if they are going to use drugs, they’re not being stigmatised and criminalised.”
Instead of giving a closing speech at the full council meeting, Lavan called for a minute’s silence in memory of people suffering from addiction, those who have died from overdoses and the families left behind.
The Green party’s drugs policy was attacked by Labour during the Gorton and Denton byelection campaign, with a spokesperson calling it “extreme and dangerous”.
Speaking at the full council meeting, the Bristol Labour councillor Kaz Self said that while her party backed the declaration, there was some concern it was the “thin end of the wedge”.
Outside the meeting, a Green councillor, Abdul Malik, said that, as a mosque leader, his faith was clear that intoxicants were harmful and should be avoided. He said: “Nothing in this motion changes that. This is not about encouraging drug use or normalising addiction. It is about recognising a simple truth: after 55 years, we cannot honestly say prohibition on its own has solved this problem and we have a responsibility to look at what the evidence tells us does work.
“If this motion helps one more person into treatment, prevents one more overdose, reduces crime on our streets and spares one more family from unimaginable loss, then it is worth doing.”
