Summit calls for more action on drugs deaths
● Conference calls for Westminster to allow consumption room in Glasgow
Politicians and public health experts have made a fresh plea to the UK Government to allow a drugs consumption room (DCR) to be opened in Glasgow, as the scale of the drugs death crisis in Scotland was spelled out at a summit on the issue.
The event, co-organised by Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government, heard from more than a dozen speakers on what needs to be done to reverse the spiralling number of Scots who are dying each year from a range of proscribed substances.
The summit was held in the Scottish Exhibition Centre the same venue the UK Government will host its conference on drugs deaths today.
Scotland’s largest city has an estimated 11,900 problem drug users living in its boundaries, with around 500 of them regularly injecting themselves in public areas around Glasgow Central railway station.
Around a third of all drugs deaths in Scotland take place in the city, with HIV infection rates rocketing in recent years as addicts increasingly share needles.
SNP ministers and local health authorities have been left frustrated at the failure to establish a DCR in the city, which they believe would help reduce the growing number of heroin addicts who contract HIV from the shared use of needles.
Councillor Mhairi Hunter said Glasgow was “ready and willing” to open a DCR with the backing of its local health partnership. “I don’t think any city has been more ready than Glasgow is,” she said.
“We have political consensus across the council - most of our elected representatives, officials, and the health and social care partnership.
“We have a huge amount of support from the public for taking this approach.
“We are ready, we are willing, and all we need is the go ahead.”
Drug laws are reserved to Westminster and successive UK Governments have ruled out the opening of a DCR in Glasgow, which would be illegal under current legislation.
The Scottish Conservatives have called for Holyrood to invest more money in rehabilitation services instead.
Public health minister Joe Fitzpatrick said he was ready to work with the UK Government to tackle the drugs death crisis.
“The problem we are here to discuss is as brutal as it is simple,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: “The UK Government has no plans to introduce drug consumption rooms in the UK. Illegal drugs devastate lives and communities, and dealers should face the full consequences of the law.”