Charity aiming to make 'life-saving kits' more accessible to drug users

With suspected drug deaths falling by 10% across Scotland, an Aberdeen charity wants to make potentially life-saving kits more available.

Alcohol and Drugs Action, wants to make naloxone more accessible, and will also pilot a drug checking facility in the city.

Drink and drugs consumed Marc’s life for over three decades, but he has now been clean for more than two years.

On more than one occasion his life was saved by naloxone, a medicine that quickly reverses an opioid overdose.

He said: “I am lucky to be here, lucky to still be alive.

“I was never happy and I always wanted more, I always had to have more of everything and I always had to take more than anyone else.

“I was put on a methadone prescription at 15, and I was on it for decades.

“I’m now trying to get something back, because I still see all the carnage around me and I’ve lost a lot of people to drugs over the years.

“There are still too many people caught up in it.”

Gillian McLean from Alcohol and Drugs Action, a charity is at the heart of supporting those with addiction problems in Aberdeen and helping them on the road to recovery, said: “We are an anonymous service, so people can come in and feel quite confident without being stigmatised and get clean injection equipment.

“We have an opportunity to build up relationships with people, so we can have conversations about harm reduction and safer injections or alternatives to injections.”

New figures show suspected drug deaths have fallen by around 10% across the country. But the threat of illicit drugs now laced with more dangerous and toxic substances continues to rise.

With the UK’s first drug consumption room opening in Glasgow this year – users can now administer drugs in a safe and hygenic environment

But with no plans for anything similar in the North East, organisations in Aberdeen are focusing on making life-saving naloxone kits more accessible across the city.