Since its inception in 2003, the room has enabled drug users to use substances in a safe and dignified manner. It has been possible to attract people who did not want to go to social services and avoid several overdose deaths. So far over 3,100 people have passed through the enclosure and more than 270,000 services of all kinds have been offered.

However, after the meeting held in Spain by the leadership of Doctors of the World, in September last year announced that they would leave the service claiming that this is a task that the administration has to carry out. In the attempt to transfer to another partnership, only the Anti-AIDS Commission in Bizkaia was willing. The Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the City Council of Bilbao, for their part, did not appreciate it and since then the lack of consensus has called into question the future of the users. However, the Councilor for Social Action of the City of Bilbao, Juan Félix Madariaga, pointed out that within a month of closing the doors of the Bailén the service will be maintained in the same place. It will be called the Socio-Health Center for Addiction Care and will extend services to users. The City Hall clarifies that the management will be carried out by the Gizakia Foundation.

According to Jagoba Zallo, a member of Doctors of the World, the location of the room has decisively influenced the decision of the City Hall to maintain the service: “Other similar centers are in slums, but it is located in the center of Bilbao and next to the San Francisco neighborhood, which for years has been a drug supermarket.”

For consumers and neighbours

To deal with the problems arising from the consumption of the street of drugs, a supervised consumption room was opened in the district of Bailen. “The initial goal was to reduce the consequences and risks of street consumption for the neighborhood and, from the consumers’ point of view, to preserve their health and ensure their hygienic consumption,” Zallo explained.

Of the agreements signed with the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the City Council of Bilbao, 85% of the budget has so far been included. The rest have been achieved from funded projects such as the National AIDS Plan, or the National AIDS Plan. Zalló says that these plans have been disappearing and that due to lack of resources the management of Spain decided to cut working hours. “It was first opened every day of the year, but since last April we closed on weekends.”

In the room they consume heroin, cocaine and a mixture of both. At first vaccination was only accepted, but there are currently two classrooms: the vaccination room and the breathing room. When the user enters the room, a syringe change is made and then the employee of the counter asks what he has previously taken and distributes everything necessary, except the drug. Each room has a maximum of six people at a time, so they are offered something to eat or drink while they are given the number and are expected to turn.

149 users

In order to identify people in situations of social exclusion, an institution technician has been in the consumer room for the last six weeks collecting data from users. From this observation, 71% of consumers are at risk of social exclusion or exclusion, while the consumer room currently has 149 users. Zallo, on the other hand, believes there could be more: “In the first year we had about 800 users, but they have been declining. Although each month we have five or six new names, in general, it is the same group as ten years ago, ten years older.”

The current profile is of a man aged 35 and 44, Biscayan and approaching two or three times a week. 83% of users are men, while 87% are registered in Bizkaia. As regards income, one in three consumers receives the Income Guarantee Income or a “supplementary” pension. According to Zallo, the frequency of consumption is determined not only by dependence, but also by economic capacity: “Most come two or three times a week. But there is, for example, that it comes every day of collection until the money is spent.”

“We are not the substitutes of those responsible”

In general, the members of Doctors of the World of the Basque Country were very pleased with the decision of the Spanish leadership. Some were not satisfied with the closure as an “extraordinary resource”, but all agree that the work of the association is “to mark the needs and denounce that what needs to be cared for is not done”. “Meanwhile, we’re going to fill the gaps, but we don’t want to be forever. We are not their substitutes,” says Zallo. “If the consumption room were closed and the users stayed on the street, the effort made for years by the workers would be lost.” If Madariaga complies, the workers will relax, although they may lose their jobs. Zalló has taken the view that, because of the accession between users and workers, it would be logical if the five current workers were to continue from 26 November, even if the NGO did not participate.

Cartels against signatures in favour

Zallo recalled that, when the room was opened eleven years ago, signs saying "non-narcotic" could be read in the windows of the neighbors. “Before you open a site like this, we learned that you have to talk to your neighbors. Also with the political parties, so that it is not used as a political weapon”. The situation today is very different and the initial rejection of the neighbours has become a support: a collection of signatures has also been launched against the closure of the consumer room. In the words of Zallo, it has been an important achievement for society and especially the neighbors to see the service with good eyes. “These resources are necessary for both users and neighbors, it is the most extensive subject.”