With drug-related deaths in Bristol 4% higher than the national average, campaigners are urging councils to increase overdose centres and drug-checking services.
This comes as a man was jailed on Tuesday for attempting to convey prohibited articles into a prison.
Local charities are campaigning to decriminalise drug use and recognise it as a health problem.
Jane Slater, a spokesperson for Transform Drugs, says “we cannot police our way out of a drug problem.”
Under current government policy, drugs are illegal to use and doing so will result in a criminal conviction.
Cara Levan, from the charity Anyone’s Child, deems this approach ineffective.
“This has been in place for over 50 years and in that time drug use has only increased”.
She continued “I would like to see local councils allowing drug-checking services more widely, allowing overdose prevention facilities where people can go to a safe place to take drugs. Taking drugs in the street makes it more dangerous for them […] but there has never been a death in an overdose prevention facility.”
According to a recent council report, Bristol has the second highest estimated rate of opiate and/or crack users of the English core cities.
This week 27-year-old Bristolian Kyle Morris was sentenced to 18 months in prison following his arrest outside HMP Bristol in September.
He was found carrying mobile phones, tobacco, steroids, needles and syringes in a cling-film package.
DCI Ben Lavender from Avon and Somerset Police said tackling this type of crime is a “key focus for us and our criminal justice partners.”
Ms Levan said people should encourage destigmatisation of drug use because it is linked to trauma. She emphasised “90% of people who become addicted to drugs were abused as children in some way. We feel sorry for children that are abused, but the moment they turn 18 we throw them into prison.”
Meanwhile Transform Drugs are encouraging Bristolians to meet with local MPs and start conversations about changing drug policy.
