Fresh call for injection rooms in Scotland

Public health minister Aileen Campbell is set to call on the Scottish Parliament to back a safe injecting room for drug users.

Ms Campbell supports plans to set up a facility in Glasgow for safe consumption of drugs to combat the rise in HIV cases and drug deaths in the city.

She wants a united crossparty effort to ask the UK government to change the laws which make such premises illegal in the UK, arguing that those in other countries have proved effective.

Speaking ahead of a Holyrood debate today, she said: “There are safe consumption rooms in more than 70 cities around the world but not one in the UK. That is no longer tenable.” The UK government has previously ruled out creating drug consumption rooms or devolving drug laws.