Source: The Copenhagen Post

23 February 2011

Police will not allow drugs to be used in private injection room

Despite protests from local residents and warnings from the police, Denmark’s first private injection room for heroin users is set to open next week in the Vesterbro district.

The police are not opposed to the room opening; however, they said they will shut the room down if they find people using drugs there.

“The room is not illegal per se, but possession of narcotics is illegal,” said Arne Wissing, of the Copenhagen Police. “We have no intention to sit passively and witness criminal acts, so if we see people in possession of illegal drugs, we will certainly act.”

But there is nothing illegal in having such a room, according to principal organiser Michael Lodberg Olsen.

“If that’s the case, then they could just as well have shut down all of Vesterbro 30 years ago. A report from the UN states that handing out clean needles to drug abusers is the same as establishing an injection room.”

The police announcement has not deterred Olsen from planning to open the room
as scheduled on March 1, just opposite Central Station at Reventlowsgade 28.

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