PROSECUTION REPRIEVE FOR DRUG CASUALTIES

POLICE will no longer automatically be called to incidents where drug
users have overdosed.

Greater Manchester Ambulance Service (GMAS) has changed its policy in
a move designed to encourage drug users to ring 999 when someone is in
trouble.

Ambulance chiefs believe that many drug users and their friends are
discouraged from calling for help because they fear penalties if the
police become involved. It is a situation that may be costing lives.

In the past, GMAS says many users have even been stripped of all
identification and left alone before the ambulance arrives. Time is
obviously being lost, as is helpful information.

GMAS currently deals with more than 1,100 heroin and methadone
overdoses a year, and in the vast majority of cases death is avoidable
if paramedics can get there in time.

From today, police will only be called to the scene of an overdose
under exceptional circumstances, such as if a child is involved or if
ambulance crews or paramedics have been assaulted at the caller
address on a previous occasion.

GMAS divisional manager Delwyn Wray said the move should help medics
provide more prompt treatment and gain more information about what
drugs have been taken.

The policy is supported by the police and drugs charity
Lifeline.

GMAS is also set to launch an education programme in prisons to inform
inmates about the new policy and teach them basic first aid techniques
like the recovery position.

GMAS chief executive John Burnside said: Both new policies are
aiming to improve the confidence drug users have in the ambulance service.

We now need to educate drug users to call for help and make them
realize that the police will not automatically turn up.

"The job of GMAS is to save lives, not to judge on the wrongs of
drug taking."