By Andria, and Milly Goldstein

July 3rd 2025, we held a meeting in the house of Lords to talk about reducing drug-related deaths. Tragically the late great Peter Krykant died less than a month before the meeting, which was heart-breaking for many, partly as he had run the UK’s first overdose-prevention site in downtown Glasgow, saving at least nine of our peers lives, (unsanctioned though it was.) Rest in peace and power: I can only hope Peter’s family are comforted by the many and varied media articles published soon after his death, commending his work in the Ambulance bus, that he converted into an OD prevention Site (OPS).

Key note speakers at the event included Bijran Nisral, the Medical Director of Change Grow, Live (CGL), full time Activist and author Neil Woods, Niamh Eastwood, the CEO of RELEASE and also, Alex Boyt, who has been a board member of Humankind, and was a dedicated Service User Involvement Worker for years in Bristol and London.

My friend, Lord Brian Paddick hosted the meeting for us and also kicked off the presentations. As I knew there would be several relative-newcomers to harm reduction there, and drug policy reform, I asked him to share his experience as one of London’s leading cops back in 2003. He was a senior police officer in Lambeth when Marijuana was effectively decriminalised: he and his team felt that more serious crimes like murder needed their attention and so it was that one borough in 2003, effectively decriminalised Marijuana. He was hounded and abused in the gutter press about being gay and a former boyfriend had been paid a hundred thousand pounds to bad-rap him, including the accusation of being a marijuana user.

£100,000! It’s kinda sickening, when you consider the numbers of lives we could improve with that amount of money. Anyways.. Brian was honoured by US reformers for his efforts.

https://drugpolicy.org/news/drug-policy-alliance-honor-british-commander-brian-paddick-pioneering-achievements-harm/

Famously, soon after that Lambeth policy change, someone was reportedly sat smoking weed on the doorstep of one of London’s Police Stations (PS), and needed reminding that it wasn’t legal yet!

Members of other NGOs present included London’s chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power/ACT.UP including Hywel Ap Dafydd, a Human Rights Activist and AIDS & Cancer Survivor, Eva from CGL and various new friends, obviously concerned with drug policy.

Crisis and several harm reduction services providers in the South. We were eager to hear from x and current IDUs who had administered Naloxone to peers in the course of their work in the drugs field. Niamh Eastwood was quick to point out that Naloxone is not a panacea, but from our point of view, as people (who have buried many friends who OD’d before Naloxone was a thing,) at least it represents some hope.

That said, Niamh was right to interject, as the UK has never had as many drug-related deaths (DRDs) as it did in 2023, and the numbers are not descending rapidly yet. Obviously, we hope that the establishment of The Thistle (OPS) in Glasgow will help with that, and in fact many lives have already been saved there since it opened its doors last January (two/day at last count:)

I just read that South Yorkshire, Bristol and Reading are also considering OD prevention sites (OPSs), as well as colleagues and friends, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with it’s very high level of poverty. It should be noted that 40% of all of Europe’s DRDs are happening in the UK, and most of them are opioid-related. Niamh pointed out that drugs use is ubiquitous in impoverished communities – 9x more likely to be happening there. That 40 countries have now ended criminal sanctions which has led to the reduction of DRDs, therein.

That the highest numbers of DRDs are happening (also) in Sweden made me ruminate, somewhat. i recalled that a Swedish MP, who was our nemesis between 2000 and 2008 at Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CNDs) annual gatherings. Indeed, she exploited a 15 year old child, who’d had a short but difficult time with MDMA, to give ‘authority’ to the anti-harm reduction message she was desperate to uphold. With the mainstream media in front of her, she was kinda shocked when I rapidly put the Usersvoice’s glossy front page in front of that camera! G bless Marco Perduca (former Italian Congressman) who pointed out that what she had done was at best exploitative, at worse illegal

Back to the Hse of Lords,July 2025: A Gent in the audience, who works with young people of colour, trying to stop them from getting involved with knife crime said he thought that most of the drug dealing in London was being carried out by his fellow Afro-Carribean peers. Niamh pointed out that closer to the truth is 32% white folk and 26% Black, when it comes to users at least. I am not great fan of numbers, as I still feel decades later – that we cannot possibly get them right – when so many of us are still hiding and/or not in treatment, mostly due to dubious UK legislation, now more than 50 years old.. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/38/contents?view=plain.

Neil Woods said that the first requirement of policing should be the preservation of life, but police activity in the drugs market, often means an increase of OD deaths, as well as crime: that the shape of the market changes, inevitably causing more seller-competition. Neil said, 2001 was when he first bought heroin from a child (as an undercover cop) but there are nigh on 50, 000 youth selling narcotics illegally 24 years later…..

And present today were Milly Efthimiou-Goldstein (my kid) and Stanley Reece: both young people we cherish enormously. I’d be devastated if either were dragged into County lines, but It was great to have Henry, a former service user present. Also his co-worker, Amy, from a Kent Drug Service Organisation. Henry said, “I have been off of drugs for four years and have been there for our peers, when Naloxone was needed.” Amy is a professional dedicated to ensuring the voice of service users are heard, which is important for people who are trying to stay alive and have a reasonable life on drugs, not to mention those seeking recovery, of course.Anyways, back to Henry, who pointed out that lots of IDUs don’t even know that harm reduction services exist, hence their reticence to seek support. He also reiterated that it isn’t only the criminalised Heroin supply that is mixed with Fentanyl, and Nitazenes, killing thousands of our Peers. Of course, Neil Woods was quick to point out that the illegal status of these drugs is a real obstacle to saving users lives. Hence, most of us at the Usersvoice say #ProhibitionKills .

Niamh also made important points about Racism and its pernicious role in the drugwar, and the need for “Safe Supply” in UK, in order to radically reduce the increasing numbers of drug Related Deaths. https://www.bccsu.ca/blog/news/what-is-safe-supply-a-look-at-what-b-c-drug-users-advocates-are-demanding/

Dr Bijral, CGL’s Medical Director made a critical point about the context of the lives of PWUDs (people who use drugs) every day. Compulsive all-the-time drug use is not as common as it seems, unless we mean caffeinated beverages. I get slightly miffed with co-creators in Harm Reduction, who speak as if banging up heroin, or crystal meth is somehow synonymous with too many cuppas in a day. It only could be if we ever had opium tea-bags. I know that sounds trite, but you get my point. When I drink too much coffee, I get temporarily wired, but the whole day is not taken up with scoring, and hustling as it is with using criminalised powders. Addiction maybe the same but context makes a huge difference for us if the drugs are illegal. (See book by Norman Zinberg – “Drugs: Set and Settting” on this key issue.)

I recall a paragraph written by advocate, Bill Nelles, in “where he highlights how AIDS (for example) pushed IDUs into checking in with clinicians, though it is often the last thing they wish to do, for fear of being ‘managed’- for us, drugs will do…..OK, I’m just kidding, but that is a delusion i ran with for a decade. In 2025, the UK drug supply is often tainted with Nitazenes or Fentanyl, so premature death has become more common, ergo contact with people not in the criminalised drugs-at-any-cost scenes, is vital: if nothing else, folk like Dr Bijral can prescribe an opiate that enables us to not necessarily have to use street dope ontop..

And so to my old friend, Alex Boyt: in June, I called him to see if he could also rep PWU/IDs at this gathering. I was not aware that he had an ongoing friendship with Peter Krykant before his death, and this made me uneasy about asking. Fortunately, Alex was not deterred though obviously sad and his contribution was thus more poignant. He lost his ex-wife who may well still be here today if she had been able to access a heroin prescription; same for my friend Renee: RIP

Of course, we don’t know this but how many of us “used on-top” of prescriptions? Ergo, we never really wanted methadone or suboxone, but that was what was on offer, so we would supplement scripts, in order to get high now and then, or to actually get the amount we needed. There are countless such stories, and so for those of us drowning in the rage of grief, it is paramount to support the efforts of Mark Gilman, (researcher) Neil Woods (recovering undercover cop) and others, who are currently speaking up regularly about increasing access to heroin as a viable treatment for addiction. Yep, it is enabling: it is also life saving for some.

The most recent data about numbers of PWUDs lost to DRDs is from 2023, and was the highest ever, reaching almost 5,000 in the whole UK, many of them in Scotland, where there was also 187 new HIV infections a few years ago: this is what drove Peter Krykant to establish the 1st OPS/Drug Consumption Room (DCR).

When did it become illegal to save Junky Lives? Peters work running an unsanctioned OD Prevention Ambulance, was only illegal inasmuch as sometimes people consumed criminalised drugs there

Lord Paddick made an interesting comment, when I was becoming increasingly angry/frustrated in the meeting about our collective suffering. “Remember” he said, “there are two ex police officers in the room..” I was so adrenalised trying to chair my first ever meeting in the House of Lords, I literally didn’t understand. Like was he serious, or was he kidding? After all, I knew that he and Neil Woods had been cops. Anyways, I just responds ironically, saying, “Oh was that all illegal up there in Glasgow then?!”

So let me repeat that. When did it become illegal to save lives? Alex Boyt had already told us that govt documents about the aims of drug treatment, did not include “saving lives”- that would not have indicated to them that their policy was not working…. I guess we are supposed to take that for granted?

I had micro-managed the organisation of this meeting and was eager about ending the intense gathering on time. I asked this Q: how is it that clients of drug services only see their practitioners/carers to be blood-tested, pick up works and Nitazene strips, Naloxone and fill in forms. When did it become to much for the workers to actually stop and ask, “How the hell are U dude?!” Eva, who works at the Commercial Rd, CGL hub, interjects assertively at this point. “I can answer that for you. Basically, there is not enough time.” Once we have done all the essentials, as in made sure BBI-prevention tools and death prevention tools are firmly in the hands of the IDU, time has already disappeared. “And I have to fill out all the forms ticking that all that has been done.” She didn’t sound delighted about it either..

Hearing that, I am boiling with rage and sadness, remembering that in my day, the only way you got your methadone was by going to group therapy, facilitated by the clinics Psychiatrist and/or Social Worker. How are our lives supposed to get better without Talk Therapy?

Prun Bijral of CGL was also referring to the why-his-patients find it so tough to remain conscious each day: homelessness, emotional dis-regulation (aka as Mental illness) and other illness, often being the hardest to navigate, especially when drug free. https://www.changegrowlive.org/

Ultimately,#ProhibitioncausesStigma #StigmaKills

Thanks to Milly Efthimiou-Goldstein for picture editing in this article