Peter Krykant took risks because he wanted to save lives

Glasgow Times

2 days ago

Nearby residents have been frustrated and angry at the level of discarded needles in the area for years.
They hoped, and were told, the Thistle would help reduce this by giving people a safe space to inject indoors but the practice of outdoor injecting continues.
On the other hand, the centre has so far saved the lives of 38 people.
That has to be welcomed but they can't simply be kept alive from one injection to the next.
If it is to be part of the solution, there must be a clear route from the Thistle to recovery and a much greater effort made to get people drug free.
Before the Thistle could be opened legally, Peter Krykant took huge risks and opened up an Overdose Prevention Centre in a converted transit van.
(Image: Mark F Gibson) (Image: Mark F Gibson)
I first met Peter in 2019 at an event in Possilpark to highlight the rapidly rising drug deaths.
He approached after the meeting and said he was going to open a mobile drug consumption room. I, like many others, I'm sure, was sceptical.
But there was something about the man that said he was serious and we agreed to keep in contact.
I met Peter several times since that first meeting.
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He took me down to a riverbank site where he said he used to take drugs many years ago.
As we walked around, picking our way through needles and syringes, I could see the sadness in his face that it was still being used for the same purpose by a new generation.
When he got his van kitted out, he parked it up close to another site where he knew people were using drugs.
Unlike the health board, the council and the government, Peter Krykant didn't have a big budget, but he was prepared to risk his own money to prevent people from dying on the street.
He was prepared to risk his liberty by opening up an illegal facility to prevent people from dying on the street.
A quote from Peter was 'If trying to save lives is a crime, I'm guilty'.
The 2019 meeting was organised by Favor (Faces and Voices of Recovery) and in particular Annemarie Ward and Natalie Logan Maclean, who were instrumental in getting the drug death issue the attention it deserved.
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The two women had had enough of seeing friends and family die while politicians prevaricated and officials failed to provide the support necessary.
After that meeting, the drug death issue got more media attention and eventually, politicians took notice.
But people are still dying in the same high numbers. Scotland hasn't got it right yet, far from it, but we all need to hope that we will.
There is much disagreement among campaigners on the effectiveness of consumption rooms and not everyone agreed with Peter Krykant.
In the future, when hopefully Scotland finally gets to grips with the drug death scandal, I believe that period, from that meeting in Possilpark - and many others organised by Annemarie and Natalie, to Peter Krykant opening his Overdose Prevention Van, will be looked on as a watershed.
We are not there yet; the scandal persists.
Since that meeting, more than 5000 people have died in drug-related deaths in Scotland. We need to unite on a way forward to end the scandal.
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Peter Krykant had a troubled past but he had a heart and a vision.
He understood more than most of us what people who are living with addiction are going through.
When I heard Peter had died on Monday, I felt genuine sadness.
Sadness for a troubled man who put others before himself and for a man who died way too soon when he had so much to give and so much to live for.
He wanted to save lives.
I feel privileged to have met him.