Glasgow drug facility ‘could go ahead if police extend relaxed approach’

Home Secretary Sajid Javid. Picture: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire

Extending the use of police warnings to drugs other than cannabis could be a way of opening a controversial consumption facility, it has been claimed.

The Home Office has ruled out the creation of a drug consumption room in Glasgow – an idea backed by the local health board, council and Scottish Government – where users could take illegal substances in safe and sterile surroundings rather than injecting in the street.

Health experts yesterday told Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee that those using needle exchanges are currently not pursued by the police.

And Elinor Dickie, public health intelligence adviser at NHS Health Scotland, said the use of Recorded Police Warnings (RPWs) could be extended.

Introduced in 2016, RPWs are used for a range of minor offences which would previously have been reported to prosecutors, including cannabis possession.

Asked if there was a way of “testing the boundaries” of the current drugs legislation, Ms Dickie said: “Police Scotland have introduced recorded warnings for small amounts of cannabis only – no other drugs.

“In terms of the issue of drug consumption rooms and the possession of drugs on the premises, exploring whether the warnings could be applied to other drugs may be one means to get around that issue of possession.

“We already see that around injecting equipment services provision. Police surveillance around these facilities has been deemed not in the public interest…”

Research published earlier this year in The Lancet said factors such as homelessness and cocaine injecting had helped create a “perfect storm” in Glasgow, with over 10 per cent of intravenous drug users in the city centre now infected with HIV.

But speaking earlier this week, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he opposed the plan for a consumption room because of concerns it would increase drug use.

Giving evidence to MPs yesterday, Dr Saket Priyadarshi, medical director for addictions at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said evidence from elsewhere in the world showed consumption rooms do not increase drug taking.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government’s public health minister Joe FitzPatrick has visited a similar facility in Paris.

A new law in France protects staff at the Espace Gaia from prosecution and tolerates the consumption of illicit products inside.