Change to drug law will open door to fix rooms
Krykant hopes for official facility within months
DRUGS crusader Peter Krykant believes that changes to drug laws will lead to consumption rooms being introduced in Scotland.
The Crown Office will quickly establish a legal framework that will accommodate people taking drugs in safe locations supervised by NHS staff, it’s understood.
It is believed a funded, official facility will open in months rather than years.
Krykant, who ran an unofficial mobile overdose prevention centre, said: “If the judicial system can accommodate the possession of class A drugs without it leading to criminal charges, it can accommodate people with addiction using such facilities.
“Scotland is the place which will pioneer such facilities.”
Krykant, who now has a job at drug treatment firm Cranstoun, added: “There would be great advantages in such a centre operating outwith the NHS and companies like Cranstoun would be well placed to operate them.
“I’d be happy to do it myself. I’ll be prepared to pass on my learning about providing services that reduce the likelihood of drug deaths for the most vulnerable street users.”
Krykant, of Falkirk, welcomed Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain’s legal reforms, saying: “It’s about getting people into treatment instead of charging them with offences.
“It’s madness to drag someone who’s addicted into court and fine them or, even worse, jail them.”
He said the issue of NHS staff potentially breaking the law can already be dealt with via the Public Health Act as they would be saving lives.
He added: “It’s the Lord Advocate who directs police and if they’re told to divert people in possession of drugs from prosecution it’ll remove a major barrier to further reforms.”
Campaigner Annemarie Ward, of the Favor charity, welcomed the reforms but added: “This has to be accompanied by increasing access to treatment and rehabilitation or nothing will change.”