Police chiefs SUPPORT UK’s first ‘shooting gallery’ for heroin addicts in city centre
POLICE Scotland has welcomed a proposal to open the UK’s first ‘shooting gallery’ for heroin users in Glasgow.
Addicts would be able to inject and smoke the illegal Class-A substance inside the new city-centre facility – without breaking the law.
NHS experts have also recommended that pharmaceutical-grade heroin be made available on prescription – and that needle-vending machines be placed outside for out-of-hours access.
But in a hard-hitting dispatch, The Scottish Mail on Sunday today reveals the grim reality of a similar scheme operating in Germany.
Glasgow City Council’s Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) is currently preparing a ‘business case’ for a pilot drug-injecting and heroin-assisted treatment facility.
The plans would have to be approved by the Scottish Government and the Lord Advocate, who would put in place a legal framework to allow drug taking on site. In a 108page report released at the end of last month, entitled Taking Away The Chaos, the ADP concluded new measures were needed to safeguard habitual drug users in Scotland’s largest city – and to protect the public from discarded paraphernalia.
Approximately 500 drug users who inject in public in Glasgow city centre would be eligible to attend the medically supervised unit.
Dr Emilia Crighton, director of public health at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and vice chairman of the ADP, said: ‘We are decades behind other countries in the way we tackle this problem. Until someone is ready to seek and receive help to stop using drugs, it is important to keep them as safe as possible.’
Medically supervised drug-injecting facilities have been running in parts of Europe since the mid-1980s, with 30 operating in the Netherlands and 25 in Germany.
Chief Inspector Hilary Sloan, responsible for partnerships across Greater Glasgow Police Division, said: ‘We welcome new ideas which may keep vulnerable people and the wider community safer from drug taking and associated criminality. We recognise this is a very early discussion and a broader consultation needs to take place with key stakeholders before decisions are made.
‘As a member of the Glasgow city Alcohol and Drug Partnership we will continue to contribute to this early conversation and we look forward to learning more about the possible benefits in respect of any broader community impact.
‘The driving force of Police Scotland is to keep people safe. We will continue to work with partners and explore new ideas in support of that shared objective.’