Scottish Parliament backs creation of UK’s first drug consumption room in Glasgow

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Scottish Parliament backs creation of UK’s first drug consumption room in Glasgow

23 April 2018

By Chris Green,

The Scottish Parliament has backed plans to create the UK’s first heroin “shooting gallery” in Glasgow city centre, allowing drug addicts to inject themselves in a safer environment.

MSPs from all of the nation’s political parties except the Conservatives united behind a Scottish Government motion calling for the UK to change the law and allow the facility to be opened.

Glasgow City Council has developed plans for a so-called “fix room”, with the aim of tackling an increase in street injecting and HIV infections in Scotland’s largest city.

The project would allow addicts to bring their drugs into the facility and take them under controlled conditions, providing them with sterile needles as well as separate access to treatment.

But the plans stalled after Scotland’s top legal adviser, the Lord Advocate, said the facility would be illegal unless the UK amends the Misuse of Drugs Act, which applies across the country.