Drop-in centres

In the Rainbow Group’s drug consumption rooms, drug users can use their pre-obtained drugs in a quiet and safe environment. They can exchange their used needles for new ones, preventing needle littering on the street. Moreover, each clean needle handed out to a user helps to prevent the spreading of infectious diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C.

Using in a public space is so stressful that it tends to push the user’s health concerns to the background. Using in a protected environment rather than on the street reduces the risk of overdoses or abscesses. Our consumption rooms work according to Harm Reduction principles. We offer drug users a safe, hygienic and stress-free environment. This contributes to the lives of the drug users as well as their environment.

Harm Reduction is an international movement aiming to reduce drug related individual and societal harms. Needle Exchange Programmes, methadone, heroin maintenance programmes, and drug education are all forms of Harm Reduction. The Rainbow Group has over 30 years of experience with this approach, now widely accepted as an official policy in the Netherlands and abroad.

Would you like to know more about Harm Reduction? Please visit the following sites:

www.correlation-net.org
www.eurohrn.eu
www.emcdda.europa.eu/themes/harm-reduction
www.indcr.org