Scotland drug deaths: Evidence for legal drug taking sites is 'irrefutable', says Scottish minister

Drugs policy minister Angela Constance has said the effectiveness of safe consumption rooms is “irrefutable”, as campaigners called on the Scottish Government to push through plans despite concerns drug users could be prosecuted.

Appearing before a joint meeting of the criminal justice committee, the health, social care and sport committee and the social justice and social security committee, Ms Constance backed plans to open drug consumption rooms in Glasgow.

“They’re not a silver bullet, but they save lives,” she said. “The scale of the challenge in Scotland, we need all solutions at our disposal.”

The facilities were first proposed seven years ago, when Glasgow’s health and social care partnership drew up plans in the midst of the UK’s worst HIV epidemic in 30 years.

Recovering addict Peter Krykant famously operated an unofficial mobile safe consumption room in Glasgow, saving several lives. Campaigners now want official sites to be authorised in the city.

The idea is to allow drug users to inject under the supervision of medical professionals, and the facilities will also provide services to help people deal with addiction. However, the proposals hit legal difficulties due to the need for police to ignore users carrying illegal drugs to the site.

The then-Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC – Scotland's top prosecutor – declined to back the plan in 2017, saying the issue was a public health matter rather than a justice one.

Subsequently, the UK Government rejected the idea, and since then the proposal has been caught in a legal wrangle between the Scottish Government and Westminster over prosecution waivers to drugs legislation that would make the process explicitly legal.

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has been asked to consider if it would be in the public interest to prosecute people using drug consumption facilities.

Giving evidence to the committee, Ms Constance said both Police Scotland and the Crown Office were independent of Government. But she added it was “encouraging” the proposal sent to the Crown Office for consideration was backed by the Glasgow health and social care partnership and the police service.

“I have done everything I can up to this point, and like everyone here I wait on the conclusion of those vital discussions between the Crown Office and the police and any decision that’s forthcoming from the Lord Advocate,” Ms Constance said.

“Anything that I can do that’s within my gift, I will do – because these work, safe consumption facilities work.”

Kirsten Horsburgh, the director of operations at the Scottish Drugs Forum, told the committee she believed the facilities could be opened now.

“It’s been seven years since Glasgow made the compelling case for a safer drug consumption facility, something that we are still debating the pedantics of instead of just getting on and delivering it and dealing with any issues as they arise,” she said.

Later, Ms Horsburgh added: “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here. Over 100 of these services exist all over the world, they’ve been around since the 80s, they’ve got a good evidence base and absolutely I think we should just be getting on with it.”

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: “Work is continuing with Police Scotland in relation to responding to the proposed site, and a related request for the Lord Advocate to consider making a focused statement of prosecution policy.”