Now second city could set up ‘shooting galleries’ for drug addicts
A SECOND Scottish city is considering plans for ‘shooting galleries’ for drug addicts.
The bid to create safe centres where addicts could go to take illegal drugs under medical supervision is being looked at by council and NHS bosses in Dundee.
SNP councillor Ken Lynn, the city authority’s lead spokesman on health and social care, said the move could help to tackle the area’s drugs problem.
Mr Lynn – who was recently elected chairman of Dundee City Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board, a partnership between the council and the NHS – also spoke out in favour of legalising drugs.
He said: ‘I’m aware how controversial this idea is but I think it might be the way forward.
‘I also think that we should be looking at legalising and decriminalising drugs. It’s not something I thought I would ever be saying, but evidence from countries abroad has made me look again
‘It might be the way forward’
at how we deal with Dundee’s drugs problems.’
In June, it emerged that plans were being drawn up for pharmaceutical-grade heroin to be taken at an injecting facility in Glasgow city centre. Mr Lynn said: ‘The situation in Glasgow is something that Dundee City Council is watching carefully.’
A prime consideration would be the siting. ‘People won’t want a centre like this in a prime city centre location,’ he said. ‘I share others’ distaste of drug addicts walking about our city streets under the influence of drugs but I believe we need to do something radical to address this issue.’
He added: ‘What we are trying to do is stop people dying from an overdose. What better way to go about it than give people somewhere safe to go with medical staff on hand? I don’t believe this would increase drug use and I do think it would save lives.’
However, Lucy Dawe of charity Cannabis Skunk Sense said: ‘This is terrifying. What we should be doing is trying to get people off drugs, not allowing the state to become a drug dealer for them.’
The Scottish Government has said that it has ‘no plans to introduce drug consumption rooms or heroin-assisted treatment on a national basis’.