Waiting for the Van
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"I couldn't stand back anymore and just watch people die."
In September 2020, drug policy activist Peter Krykant decided he'd had enough. The former heroin addict, turned frontline campaigner, bought a minivan and kitted it out with sanitisers and needles, a supply of naloxone- the medication used to reverse an opioid overdose- and a defibrillator.
He parked it in Glasgow's city centre and opened its doors to homeless drug users who are most at risk of overdose.
The van is operating as a drug consumption room (DCR), which are widely used in Europe and North America. But in Britain they're considered illegal under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, though legal experts dispute that.
Scotland now holds a per capita death rate three times higher than anywhere else in Europe, tallying six straight years of record-setting, drug-related deaths. The SNP government has expressed support for bold initiatives, like DCRs, but claims its hands are tied by Westminster.
A few years ago the Home Office had stepped in to halt plans for permament site in Glasgow. Since then DCRs have been at the centre of fierce debate.
For Peter Krykant, setting up the van is not just about saving lives, but challenging drug policy.
Presenter Dani Garavelli recorded with Peter at the van over eight months, getting to know him, his family and the users who rely on the service.
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello, this is Seriously from BBC Radio 4, and I'm Vanessa Kasule. |
| 0:45.0 | This podcast finds the world's best audio documentaries and puts them all in one place. |
| 0:51.0 | Here's the most interesting thing you'll hear all week. |
| 0:58.3 | Let's get straight to the big story today. Scotland has the highest drug death toll in Europe. This time around Scotland |
| 1:05.1 | has scored its highest total since records began in 1996. |
| 1:10.7 | This is the story about the rising number of drug deaths in Scotland and it's about |
| 1:16.8 | a man a former addict himself turned drug policy activist Peter Kriacinth who |
| 1:21.9 | decided to do something about it. |
| 1:24.0 | There's often dead bodies found in the streets of Glasgow. |
| 1:27.0 | We cannot sit back and allow the government not to take action on this anymore. |
| 1:31.0 | We need to take action ourselves to save our people. |
... |
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