Overdose prevention centres in the UK:

What is it about?

Despite over 80 prominent medical, academic and third sector organisations calling for the introduction of pilot overdose prevention centres (OPCs) in the UK, the government has repeatedly stated it has no plans to introduce them, citing the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and arguing the evidence base is insufficient. This short correspondence piece in The Lancet Public Health, authored by a multidisciplinary group of public health researchers and practitioners, directly challenges each of the key arguments the UK government has used to resist OPC implementation. The piece addresses claims about insufficient evidence, legal barriers, and the risk of enabling drug use, countering each with reference to the international evidence base and the realities of the drug-related death crisis. It is explicitly framed as relevant not only to the UK debate but to other countries navigating similar policy arguments against OPC introduction.

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Why is it important?

By systematically dismantling objections one by one, it provides advocates, commissioners and politicians with a concise, peer-reviewed rebuttal that can be directly deployed in policy arguments. The timing, coinciding with Scotland recording the highest drug-related death rate in Europe and the Glasgow unsanctioned OPS having recently demonstrated proof of concept, made the case for sanctioned UK sites more urgent than at any previous point. The involvement of researchers from across the UK public health and harm reduction community signals the breadth of scientific consensus behind OPC implementation and strengthens the credibility of the challenge to government inaction