Team Blitz India
LONDON: The United Kingdom’s first “drug consumption room” for users to take illegal drugs under medical supervision has been approved, according to reports.
The £2.3-million facility is planned for Glasgow’s east end and would allow users to take their own illegal drugs in a hygienic environment with medical staff on hand, according to the Independent.
The pilot project planned for Hunter Street will be housed in the building currently used as a drug treatment facility. It was approved by health and council officials at the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board meeting on Wednesday, September 27.
The board involves NHS and council officials and earlier recommended the scheme for approval, the report added.
The rooms were first proposed in 2016 following an HIV outbreak in the nation’s biggest city. While Scotland has always wanted the scheme to get the green light, ‘drug consumption rooms’ have been embroiled in years of political wrangling between the Scottish and UK governments.
The approval committee revealed that it hoped to offer voluntary drug testing at the facility, where people could check the quality of their streetbought drugs before using them, wrote The Guardian.
Campaigners believe such a pilot could play an essential role in efforts to tackle Scotland’s chronic and epidemic drug fatality rates, which remain almost three times higher than for the entire UK.
Glasgow city council’s area had the highest rate of drug misuse deaths in Scotland over the past four years, it added.
Reports presented before the committee suggested that there is overwhelming international evidence which demonstrates that safer drug consumption facilities can improve the health, wellbeing and recovery of people who use the facility.
