Glasgow’s drug consumption room will not work and will “condone illegal use,” Rishi Sunak has said.
However, the Prime Minister confirmed that the UK Government would not mount a challenge to the facility which will allow people who use drugs to be able to take their own substances in a clean, hygienic environment.
On Wednesday, Glasgow’s Integration Joint Board signed off on the new Safer Drug Consumption Facility, set to open in the city’s east end.
The consumption room was effectively given the legal go-ahead earlier this month when Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said it would not be in the “public interest” to prosecute users for “simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility."
READ MORE: UK's first drug consumption room gets go ahead to open in Glasgow
Speaking to STV News in an interview ahead of the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister was asked if he would block the plan.
He replied: “No, that’s exactly as I said, we respect the independence of the advocate general [sic] in Scotland whilst… we disagree with the drug consumption rooms elsewhere because we think they condone illegal drug use, and that’s not something that we think is right.”
Asked if he believes such a measure will help the problem of drug addiction, Mr Sunak said: “We don’t, and we think they condone illegal use and that’s what they run the risk of doing.”
Earlier, during First Minister’s Questions, Humza Yousaf criticised the UK Government for refusing to engage with the plans.
He said: “The easiest, simplest and quickest way to have had such a facility up and running would have been if the Home Office had given approval.”
The SNP leader added: “Even with the Lord Advocate’s statement of prosecution policy, there are limitations on the pilot.
“The safer drug consumption facility can be focused only on this narrow pilot in Glasgow.
“I know that there have been calls for other pilots to be established, but the statement of prosecution policy is for simple possession offences within this particular pilot.
“I welcome the fact that the Home Office and UK Government have said that they will not stand in the way, but I would urge them to take a public health approach to tackling drug deaths, as we have done here in Scotland, and to give approval so that we can, I hope, use safer drug consumption facilities as one tool in a whole range of tools to fight what are still unacceptably high levels of drug deaths in Scotland.”
READ MORE: Drug consumption rooms Scotland: How do they work?
Scotland’s drug death rate is around 2.7 times higher than the UK average, despite a 21% drop in fatalities over the last year.
The most recent figures released by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed there were 1,051 deaths due to drug misuse in 2022 – down 279.
The service is expected to cost £2.3 million with the Scottish Government committing to funding the pilot until March 2027, when the parliamentary term comes to an end.
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