A study has shown that a quarter of the users of Copenhagen’s injection rooms are foreigners. Swedes are also over-represented among the total of 3,000 drug-users who have used the city’s two injection rooms since the service became available in 2012.

Jesper Christensen, the deputy mayor of Copenhagen for social affairs, told DR Nyheder that he was not surprised by the finding that many foreigners had used the service, but he also saw potential in having the data. “We have always known that Copenhagen had a big drug scene,” he said.

Useful data
“But it’s progress that we now know who the users of the rooms are. So we can more easily go in and see how we can work on the problem.”

Regarding the number of Swedish users, Christensen told DR that Copenhagen already co-operates with Sweden on this matter.

“We already co-operate with Malmö, where our homelessness unit works with the Swedish authorities on sending people home. So it’s just a matter of stepping up this co-operation.”