A charity working directly with drug users in Belfast said we “can’t police our way out” of an escalating drugs crisis in the city. For many living and working in the city centre, the sight of scattered needles and intraveneous drug use is becoming more common.
There have been recent calls for more to be done to support those suffering with addiction who find themselves on the city’s streets, particularly in the wake of a rise in burglaries committed out of desperation, as drug users attempt to get money to buy more drugs.
Throughout Northern Ireland, official figures point to an escalating problem. In 2024, there were 251 drug-related deaths registered here, the highest recorded level.
The figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency show 219 of those were classified as deaths from drug misuse, with numbers more than doubling that recorded a decade ago.
The charity Extern operates a needle exchange service in the city among other support and outreach services.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Iain ‘Buff’ Cameron from the charity said on the ground they can see a rise in drugs-related harm, with cocaine injecting “substantially increasing.”
He said more joined up thinking is needed between organisations operating in the city to tackle the crisis head-on.
“The partnerships we have working together in the city centre – we work closely with the PSNI and Belfast City Council – I think we have a very good response to the problem on the ground,” Buff explained.
“But there are not enough of us, and that’s right across the board. We need more policing, although that’s not to say we’re going to police our way out of this problem, it needs a multi-organisational response to try and get on top of this.
“We definitely need a safer injection facility, in the likes of Dublin and now Glasgow the facilities there are working extremely well. The evidence tells us that safe injection facilities can dramatically reduce our overdose figures.
“They can reduce our HIV, hepatitis C, and rates of infection, but it’s also a first point of contact for people who are all too often stigmatised within our community. It’s very important we have engagement with those people at as early a stage as possible, to try and help and support them as much and as quickly as we can, to support them into treatment and recovery.”
Following a break-in at The Pocket café in the city centre on July 18, its owner Richard Evans said the incident is reflective of a rise in the “scale and severity of drug-related activity” within the city centre.
He said: “This is somebody smashing through a window, desperately trying to get anything they possibly can to sell for drugs.
“I’m deeply worried about the frequency, the aggression, and how the type of crime itself is escalating. The issue itself and why people are in the position they’re in, whether drug debt, abuse, not having anywhere to go for a home, it’s just getting progressively worse. We’re seeing a systematic failure across the board for all of us as citizens.”
On a recent patrol with the Central Neighbourhood Policing Team, Buff said they have trained over 100 police officers in the administration of naloxone, a life-saving medication to reverse overdoses.
“The officers volunteered to become trained in the administration of naloxone,” he said.
“Around 100 officers throughout the city and country have been trained in its administration, which will save someone’s life if theyr’e experiencing an opiate or heroin overdose.
“Prior to the PSNI being trained in the delivery of that, they would have had to ring an ambulance or contact us. I remember before they were trained we would often get calls asking us to run to an emergency site to administer naloxone. So it’s amazing they came forward and voluntarily wanted to do that.”
Buff said five years ago he would not have believed the charity would be working alongside the PSNI. However, he said the support from officers has been invaluable in trying to make the city a safer place.
He added: “We have a very positive relationship, we work together literally everyday on the ground, just looking after people and trying to make the city centre a safer place for everyone, and particularly for those who are homeless and suffering with addiction.”
Sgt Dave McKinley, from the PSNI Central Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “You get to know the majority of service users and the most vulnerable people as you see them every day.
“These people are human beings, it can be very easy to dehumanise someone with addiction issues or trauma issues, or someone who is rough sleeping; we need to be very careful not to do that, and police don’t do that.
“Police are emotionally aware we’re dealing with these folk, we’re aware of trauma in the past. You get to know these people and signpost them to services.”
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