Nitazenes are claiming homeless lives. Here's how one group is fighting the deadly threat

People use drugs to have a good time, or to stop having a bad time by killing their pain. We do not accept that either of these are a reason someone should face significant harm or death. Yet, across the country, nitazenes are claiming lives. As a homelessness charity, these drugs are one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced in years. Now is the time to act.

Among the people we support at The Wallich – who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness across Wales – we do not need any more reasons to be concerned. But this year’s grim drug death statistics, including a tragic 18.5% increase in Wales, along with the rapidly mounting number of lives lost to nitazenes, have provided some.

The Wallich has been grounded in harm reduction for many years, but with the threat of nitazenes looming on the horizon, we looked again at ourselves to ensure we were doing all we could to keep people safe. Here’s how we’re keeping vulnerable people safe from the risks of nitazenes.

We’ve provided regular communications updates on the situation to our staff, including several focusing on the threat of nitazenes increasingly being found in benzos. We asked all our staff, not just those on the frontlines, to carry naloxone. We’re keeping better track of substance use related information, giving guidance on how people can send samples off for testing, and providing better information for our service users.

The rise of synthetic opiates in the UK drugs market is one of the biggest challenges we have faced in many years, and again highlights the failings of the way we have done things for over 50 years. It is well past time that we had a proper, grown-up discussion on drugs and drug use in the UK, and how we should be following the growing global evidence of a better way to deal with both. We are strongly supportive of an approach to substance use as a public health issue, rather than simply a problem to be solved by the criminal justice system.

Drug use is prohibited in most temporary accommodation. This drives people to either flout the rules and risk losing their place, or to use drugs in a more dangerous setting, often alone, increasing an overdose risk. Staff face the challenge of working effectively while remaining within the law. So clear guidance is essential for the several high-tolerance residential services we provide. 

In services that prohibit drug use, relationships are hampered as service users do not feel they can be honest, or staff instead must walk a delicate tightrope along the grey areas whilst working hard to keep people safe within the rules. One of our most effective harm reduction tools is simple: open, authentic, trauma-informed relationships, where people do not feel judged or stigmatised. People feel a part of keeping themselves out of harm’s way.

We are urging the Welsh and UK governments to heed the warning from the latest drug death statistics and take this chance to avert the crisis towards which we are heading. This includes supporting the changes needed to increase “tolerated use” models of housing so people experiencing homelessness who use drugs are not stigmatised and disadvantaged from the start.

We would also like to see enhanced harm reduction centres in Wales; to provide a safe, clean space for people to use substances under supervision, exchange used needles and other paraphernalia and get advice and support. International evidence suggests this could dramatically decrease the risks of overdose and blood-borne viruses and reduce the number of avoidable drug-related deaths, as no deaths have been recorded to date in any of these centres where they are available.

Anthony Vaughan is head of PIE operations and therapeutic services at The Wallich.

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