Home Office press release
Changing the law to allow the supply of additional items of paraphernalia was a huge step forward for harm reduction.

However, just as significant was this clear statement from Carloine Flint which established once and for all that Section 9a is not designed to stop drug services providing items to reduce drug related harm; AND that changes to Section 9a can be expected to follow good practice.

The press release:

Reference: 197/2003 - Date: 8 Jul 2003 14:31.

Doctors, drug treatment workers and pharmacists are to be able to supply certain types of equipment, such as cleaning items, to drug users to help prevent disease and infect on, under changes to the law announced today by the Home Office.

At present, it is illegal to supply items like filters, sterile water and swabs, which can be used to clean injecting sites, to dissolve the drug hygienically and to filter out impurities. From 1 August, drug and health care workers will be able to supply them to drug users to help them avoid health risks like dissolving drugs in dirty water or injecting traces of dirt.

Home Office Minister, Caroline Flint said:
"Our top priority is to get drug users off the drugs that cause so much harm to themselves and our communities. But we need to be realistic that, for some drug users, that will not happen overnight, and we need to help them reduce the amount of harm they do to themselves and others.

"Providing these items is currently illegal. We know that treatment workers and doctors have been making sensible decisions to provide equipment anyway, but faced the risk of prosecution. We have decided to change the law to help reduce the health risks to drug users."

"The Government is working harder than ever to fight the scourge of drugs and to treat the 250,000 chaotic drug users. This year alone we are investing more than £1.2 billion in the fight against drugs, almost half a billion of which will be used to expand and improve treatment services."