Allan Casey, Glasgow City Council convenor for addiction services, responds to the Lord Advocate’s statement that Glasgow can plan for a safer drug consumption room and she would publish a policy to say prosecution for possession of drugs within the facility would not be in the public interest.

Glasgow Times:

“This is a hugely welcome announcement from the Lord Advocate and one which can help save and turn around lives. 

“The HSCP has done a power of work over several years to bring forward plans for how a Safe Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF) could work. This has helped assure the Lord Advocate as she has made her considered decision. We will bring these plans to the next meeting of the Integration Joint Board for decisions to be taken on next steps.

READ NEXT:Lord Advocate statement on Glasgow drug consumption room

“Thanks must go to those officers, alongside everyone on the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership, our third sector and recovery communities who have engaged with this work and helped take us to where we are today.

“Glasgow has a broad consensus that a consumption facility is part of the way forward. We have the democratic mandate, the public support and now the legal, expert and clinical capacity to deliver it. We have repeatedly stated our readiness and willingness to work constructively with the Scottish Government and all partners to find solutions which save lives and build better futures.

“We all know there are no single solutions to addiction and problematic drug use and I’m clear that a SDCF is not a silver bullet.  But international evidence tells us that safe drug consumption facilities are the most impactful intervention to reduce harm and improve health.  So, a facility here in Glasgow will have a critical role to play, most importantly in terms of saving lives.

READ NEXT: Drug consumption room statement welcomed across political parties

“I hope that, given the evidence, the democratic mandate and support that exists in Glasgow to progress with a SDCF that the UK Government will not find a way to block it.

“On any given day there are people injecting in lanes, car parks, closes and public toilets around our city. They are at risk of bloodborne viruses, of overdose and drug-related death, and of injecting-related complications.

“A Safer Consumption Facility will help address much of this and provide a single space for partner agencies to engage people with health and social care, including addictions treatment and homelessness. It would also allow for direct and regular contact with a cohort significantly at risk from the explosion in poly drugs. It will have a knock-on impact on the anti-social behaviour and discarded injecting equipment which routinely accompanies problematic drug use.  Throughout the pilot we will engage with residents and businesses.

“When the influential Global Commission on Drugs Policy visited Glasgow this summer, they made us ask a crucial question of ourselves; are we doing all we can to respond to a public health emergency of this scale and importance? In response, we took a step further forward last week when all the parties on the Council with the exception of Labour agreed that the Council should take a formal position to support decriminalisation.

“That is important because we have seen that taking a decision, like we did to formally back a SDCF, allows us to build the necessary evidence base and make the case for these interventions. This isn’t just words; we are taking action too.

“But there remains much more to do, and working alongside partners we will continue the work we have been doing to put a harm-reduction approach front and centre of the city response.

“The Lord Advocate’s announcement allows us to get to work on an approach that is about compassion, pragmatism and solutions to a public health emergency, not stigmatisation and criminalisation.

“I look forward to working with all those partner order to progress at pace with opening a facility.”