AUTHORITIES should consider providing an area in Weymouth where addicts can take heroin safely in an effort to reduce the amount of drug-related deaths.

The case for providing a ‘drug consumption room’ (DCR) in the borough has been made by a drug policy think-tank.

The rooms, which operate in cities across the world, are professionally supervised healthcare facilities where people can consume drugs in safer conditions.

Glasgow and Dublin are considering them and areas in the UK which have a high drug death rate are being urged to follow suit.

Drug-related deaths nationally are at their highest on record and experts warn it could escalate even further with the emergence of fentanyl in the drug supply, a substance which can be 10,000 times stronger than street heroin.

Data from the Office for National Statistics reveals that Weymouth and Portland is one of the 10 towns most affected by this crisis – drug-related deaths reached 10.8 per 100,000 people in 2013/15. In total, drug deaths in the borough reached 20 over this period, the highest level since comparable records began.

The think tank Volteface says the areas in which drug deaths are at their highest rates all voted to leave the EU. It suggests the figures represent communities “which have been left behind and failed by existing policies”.

A spokesman said: “There is an urgent need to explore public policy options which effectively reduce the number of drug-related deaths in Weymouth and Portland.

“The Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, which offers guidance to the UK Government, has recommended that drug consumption rooms should be introduced to reduce drug-related deaths and other drug-related harms.”

Volteface’s report, ‘Back Yard’, commissioned by the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice Cross-Party Parliamentary Group examines the feasibility of establishing rooms in the UK.

It says evidence shows they are effective in reducing drug-related deaths, street injecting, the number of syringes discarded in a vicinity and needle sharing. They also increase uptake in drug treatment.

It says legal barriers can be overcome if a pilot was allowed to operate under police discretion. Pilots could then be used to build the case for legislative change.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill said: “There is a growing view that you cannot enforce yourself out of drugs. I would welcome an increase in rehabilitation for drug users and improved treatment for drug addicts.

"Any decisions around drug consumption rooms locally must be informed by the evidence coming out of trials underway in the UK and Europe.

"In order to break the drug cycle and tackle drug-related crime, the Government, policing and society must be open to a new line on drugs.”

Lord Ramsbotham, chairman of the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice Cross-Party Parliamentary Group said: “The fact that drug related deaths are now at record levels is the clearest possible indicator that existing policies are inadequate, and that new approaches and interventions are required.

"This carefully researched evidence of the viability of the Drug Consumption Rooms initiative in Dublin and Glasgow suggests that the government would do well to replicate them in other areas of the United Kingdom. Such an introduction will both strengthen drug policy and save lives."