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Sammanfattning

Aims: To review the political processes that led to the Norwegian injecting room trial. To discuss the objectives, regulations, results and experiences after the first two years and some of the issues or dilemmas raised by the public injecting room. Data and method: Data comprise various documents leading to a provisional Act of Parliament, observations of users and staff, interviews of the injecting room staff, information on registered users, statistics on each client’s use of the room, and surveys among clients. Results: Successive minority Governments have either dismissed the idea of enabling public injecting facilities altogether or failed to win parliamentary support. When in December 2004 a provisional legislative proposal was passed by the Norwegian Parliament, politicians took unusual pains to detail the practicalities related to how the injecting room should be organized. At the end of the first two years nearly 400 clients had used the facilities and on average 24 injections were administered per day. Only 10 per cent used the injecting room more than six times per month. Two thirds used it only once or twice per month. Staff grew increasingly frustrated with the working conditions. The success of the trial in terms of goals and performance is discussed. Dilemmas discussed include whether only injecting of heroin should be permitted, how to decide who to admit, how far society should go in providing help that may also prolong substance abuse, etc. Conclusions: The evaluation was unable to determine with certainty whether the objectives of the trial were achieved, partly because the targets are methodologically and practically difficult to measure empirically, and partly because the trial was of limited duration and the data inadequate. An injecting room arrangement in the form set out under the Norwegian trial scheme presents staff with several difficulties to overcome. If an injecting room is supposed to help the authorities implement policy on drug injection in Norway and at the same time provide a safe working environment for staff, it will be quite costly. In the autumn of 2008 or in 2009, a decision will be made by Parliament whether to make the scheme a permanent arrangement or close it down for good. What that decision will be is impossible to say at the time of writing.

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