Aalborg again rejects plans for drug consumption room

Aalborg Municipality has rejected plans for a drug consumption room for the second year in a row, saying there is not enough need, DR reports.

The proposed facility would give people who use drugs a dedicated place to take them, receive advice on safer drug use and potentially get emergency first aid. Kirkens Korshaer in Aalborg has long pushed for such a room in the city centre, but the plan has stalled again.

The municipality has once again chosen not to apply for funding from a state grant scheme. Peter Larsen, the municipality’s Job and Social Affairs councillor for the Socialist People’s Party, said an assessment by the administration found that the target group in Aalborg was relatively small.

“We should not establish a service just because a state grant scheme has been introduced,” Larsen said.

Jonas Jacobsen, acting head of Kirkens Korshaer, disagrees. He said a large city such as Aalborg would always need a drug consumption room with an attached health room.

According to the municipal administration, the number of people who inject drugs has fallen in Aalborg. But Jacobsen said other people who use drugs also need help and advice.

“It is so important that we do not only talk about people with injection drug use. A drug consumption room can do much more, as we see in the capital region and at our other locations across the country,” he said.

He said the facilities could help people who take drugs in ways other than injecting them, and added that his experience from the streets and Kirkens Korshaer’s drop-in centre in Aalborg showed there was a need for such a room.

Kirkens Korshaer operates drug consumption rooms in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Vejle. It has operated one in Odense since 2013.