Psychedelia.dk

As a senior police official in northern England calls for safe rooms for the injection of hard drugs, attention has focused on similar projects around Europe.

County Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg points to an experiment in Copenhagen, which Danish police say has saved lives and helped clean up drug-ridden districts.

The harsh Danish winter has yet to set in but Louise Hultman has just pulled on a thick, woolly hat.
"I haven't washed my hair for days, it looks horrible," she says. "Life is difficult when every moment is about getting your next fix."

The 23-year-old has been taking hard drugs since she was 15 and says she steals to fund her addiction to heroin and cocaine.

But these days she injects inside one of Copenhagen's so-called drug consumption rooms, where she can access sterile needles and get help from nurses if anything goes wrong.

Addicts shoot up from inside individual booths spread along a spotless metal bench.

They bring their own drugs, which remain illegal in Denmark, but police in this neighbourhood, Vesterbro, no longer prosecute them for possession.

"I feel ashamed when I shoot up on the streets. If somebody passes by, they should not see my problem," says Louise, her eyes glazed following her most recent drug dose.

"So it's great we have somewhere to go now. And I feel safer here," she adds.
Copenhagen is home to the biggest, most open drug scene in Scandinavia, with up to 8,000 users concentrated in a 2.5km radius.

The capital's first drug consumption room launched a year ago, following a change in national legislation. It is funded by the city council, which spent more than a decade lobbying the government for permission to launch the project.

A second room opened in August 2013 and a third is planned for Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city.

"We are providing a clean environment for long-term addicts and we have found that they are now much more likely to access other health services in the area," says Ivan Christensen, who manages the drug rooms in Copenhagen.

He says it is impossible to know how many lives have been saved by the project, but there has not been a single death on the premises, despite more than 100 overdoses.

"Two of my best friends died this year because they weren't near a room like this," says Ms Hultman.