"Death due to closure": Bavaria's first drug consumption room is only visible through a window
Official non-opening with Federal Drug Commissioner Burkhard Blienert, Munich Mayor Verena Dietl and Munich drug aid organisations. We call on the Bavarian government: Clear the way!
A pop-up drug consumption room in the middle of Munich city centre — surely not! After all, this form of life-saving and HIV prevention is illegal in Bavaria. That's why Bavaria's first drug consumption room will remain closed from the outset, as an unmistakable reminder throughout the World AIDS Conference in Munich of this blocked opportunity and this missing piece of vital healthcare.
The sign on the door reads "Death due to closure". And with the door to the room in Fraunhofer Strasse in the popular Glockenbach district firmly locked, Deutsche Aidshilfe announced today — three days before the start of the conference — the room's official non-opening.
Visible through the window is a fully functional consumption area for drug addicts — including sterile syringes and consumption utensils, emergency medication for overdoses, and a respirator. Smoking equipment for crack cocaine users can be seen in the window. As the writing on the back wall says, "Lives could be saved and infections prevented here."
Request to the Bavarian state government
Deutsche Aidshilfe is joining a broad alliance for this campaign to call on the Bavarian government to finally make drug consumption rooms legal in the state. All that need be done is to institute the necessary legal order. Bavaria is one of seven federal states that do not allow drug consumption rooms — despite recommendations from the WHO, UN specialist organisations, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA, EMCDDA).
Meanwhile, the number of drug-related deaths in Germany has risen continuously in recent years, as has the number of new HIV infections among intravenous drug users, as the Robert Koch Institute recently reported. Bavaria ranks third in Germany with 257 deaths in 2023. According to estimates by the Robert Koch Institute, around 40 people in Bavaria were infected with HIV through intravenous drug use in 2023 (380 nationwide).
Drug consumption rooms are not art
"This is an artistic action to make a point: Drug consumption rooms are not art. Drug consumption rooms are feasible, they are tried and tested, and they are necessary. Whether or not lives are saved and infections prevented is a political decision. Bavaria is still deciding against these things every day," said Stefan Miller from the board of Deutsche Aidshilfe in his non-opening speech. "We cannot let this go uncommented shortly before the World AIDS Conference in Bavaria."
The 25th International AIDS Conference AIDS2024 is supporting the Deutsche Aidshilfe campaign, and the conference logo adorns the invitations to the "inauguration" of Bavaria's first drug consumption room.
Federal drug commissioner appeals to the federal states
Drug consumption rooms not only provide medical help in the event of an overdose and infection prevention through sterile utensils, they are also an important way for users to access other help services, and they move consumption from the public sphere to a safe, organized setting.
Burkhard Blienert, Federal Government Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Issues, explained on site:
"Drug consumption rooms save lives, as does drug checking. Both are important tools to reach people suffering from severe addiction. These can be the first steps towards help and treatment. Drug consumption rooms also provide valuable information about the distribution of drugs, developments on the drug market and consumption behaviour as a whole. For a long time now, no one in professional circles has denied that drug consumption rooms make sense. Given the truly dangerous development of crack cocaine and synthetic opiates such as fentanyl, we can no longer afford a debate about the 'whether' of drug consumption rooms. I therefore appeal once again to the federal states that don't have these facilities: Make it possible to set up drug consumption rooms — including with drug checking facilities."
Municipalities are not allowed to do as they please
As a result of the Bavarian state government's blockade, Munich, the host city of the World AIDS Conference, has been banned from using this well-established HIV prevention method.
Verena Dietl, third mayor of the city of Munich, emphasised at the non-opening: "The city of Munich is convinced that drug consumption rooms not only better protect those with addictions, but also all citizens in our city. The Bavarian state government should leave the decision to the local authorities, who know best what is needed locally."
As in Munich, the mayors of the Bavarian cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg would also like to open drug consumption centres. However, the state government will not allow local authorities to make that decision.
Munich needs a drug consumption room
Katrin Bahr, Managing Director of the drug help organisation Condrobs e.V., spoke on behalf of the alliance "Memorial Day for Deceased Drug Users in Munich":
"We urgently need a drug consumption centre both here in Munich and in other Bavarian cities like Augsburg and Nuremberg. All cities are experiencing an increase in the consumption of highly potent substances, along with rising poverty among users and an increased burden on public spaces. Our humanistic maxim must be to provide addicts, who are part of our society, with customised support services for their illness and to enable them live with their illness with dignity and in as good health as possible. If our aid system can prevent it, no one should have to die from the consequences — this requires political will and action from the state government."
Positive effects: One million clean syringes
The German Institute for Treatment Research (IFT) and Deutsche Aidshilfe recently compiled preliminary data on the benefits of drug consumption rooms from 29 of 33 facilities in Germany, where emergency medical assistance was provided 638 times in 2023. Many of the people affected would have died in their homes or in public spaces without this help.
Dirk Schäffer, specialist for drugs and prisons at Deutsche Aidshilfe, explained:
"Hundreds of lives are saved every year in German consumption rooms following drug emergencies. Last year, 20,000 people consumed their substances in such rooms under supervision. Around one million sterile syringes and needles were handed out — each one a contribution to HIV and hepatitis prevention. In Bavaria, on the other hand, addicts have to use drugs on the street or in private. On average, this costs the life of one person per week in Munich alone. It is time for humanity and scientific evidence to once again take precedence over moral objections. There are tried and tested solutions for all such concerns!"
Legal basis in the Narcotics Act (BtMG)
The fear that drug consumption rooms lead to increased consumption is demonstrably false. It is also often argued that drug consumption rooms create lawless spaces or jeopardise the legal system or create legal grey areas. In fact, consumption in specialised rooms is strictly regulated and monitored, while it remains completely uncontrolled outside such rooms.
"The federal government has created a legal basis in order to create legal certainty. Drug consumption rooms are legally sound, and smooth implementation in the majority of federal states emphasises that the law does not have to be an obstacle," says Stefan Miller.
Thekla Andresen from the network JES ("Junkies, Ex-Junkies and Substitutes Users") explained: "The highest principle must always be human dignity and the human right to the best possible achievable state of health. What principle could be higher than this? It is time to set the right priorities. People who use drugs are not second-class citizens!"
Drug consumption rooms in nine federal states
The German federal government legalised drug consumption rooms in 2000 by amending the Narcotics Act. To date, nine states have issued the necessary ordinances to establish them, most recently Schleswig-Holstein, where the first room is soon to open in Kiel. Apart from Bavaria, drug consumption rooms are not permitted in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
The first drug consumption room in Bavaria is supported by: Ärzte der Welt e.V. + AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference + Arbeitskreis Kritische Soziale Arbeit (AKS) + Deutscher Caritasverband e. V.: Caritas München + Therapieverbund Sucht + Condrobs e.V. + Extra e.V. + JES München + Landeshauptstadt München, Gesundheitsreferat (GSR) + Münchner Aids-Hilfe e.V. + Prop e.V. + Therapie Sofort München gGmbH
More information:
Contact:
Deutsche Aidshilfe
Holger Wicht - Press spokesman
030 69 00 87 16
Free press pictures for download in the German version of this press release.