Scotland still has the worst drugs death rate in Europe.

You can’t have missed the headlines.

Or the blame game that’s broken out.

Douglas Ross has attacked Nicola Sturgeon for taking her eye off the problem during seven years of rising fatalities.

But Tory attempts to claim the moral high ground have enraged campaigners since the despair and trauma that prompt drug dependency are so clearly generated by poverty and destitution – the twin legacy of successive Conservative governments.

"If you want to tackle drug deaths and don’t want to tackle poverty – you’re not being serious," says Chris Birt of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

That’s absolutely true and, for many people, another argument for independence.

Particularly since the vital change – treating drugs as a health not a criminal issue – is stuck between Westminster’s stern refusal and Holyrood’s inability to progress without London’s permission.

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That impasse must be broken now – not later – to stem the terrible death toll and dissipate the air of hopelessness that currently surrounds drugs policy.

Speedy progress is possible right now if Scottish ministers study the local agreements being hatched in England which are taking the weight off volunteers and quietly defying the hard-line Home Office.

Drugs Consumption Rooms (DCRs) have been used across Europe and beyond to let users inject safely or receive life-saving naloxone in the event of an overdose. But not in Britain thanks to the Misuse of Drugs Act (now 50 years old). Last year, one brave Scot put his own health on the line to create a possible solution.

Peter Krykant – a former heroin addict turned frontline campaigner – bought a minivan, kitted it out with sanitisers, needles, a supply of naloxone and a defibrillator, parked it in Glasgow's city centre and opened its doors to the homeless drug users most at risk of overdose and death.

They came – as Dani Garavelli recounts in a powerful Radio 4 documentary, Waiting for the Van. Although Kyrkant’s unpaid, lifesaving action could have been construed as law-breaking, he was relatively undisturbed by the police. And that’s key to what could happen next.

A concerted Scottish Government effort could push at that open door now instead of awaiting another unproductive encounter with UK ministers. Even without Whitehall’s say so, the new Drugs Minister Angela Constance could use devolved health powers to get the ball rolling by winning over the new Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain.

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It was her predecessor, James Wolffe who effectively shut the door on drug consumption rooms in Scotland by ruling that the Home Office should determine their legality. But that reflected the strength of evidence advanced at the time. Now there are examples to draw from in England and Wales, where local agreements are being drawn up between police, councils, health boards and treatment services to create lawful DCRs. The same could be done here and a well-crafted draft package of procedures and safeguards, talked through with the Lord Advocate’s Office this summer, might produce a change of heart.

Why not try?

Glasgow is ready to go.

Labour, the LibDems, Greens and the SNP all back consumption rooms.

If lawful, local agreements can give the authorities confidence to act in England, then why not here?

Indeed, Scotland could go even further.

Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, who helped staff Peter Krykant’s van, is drafting a Bill to licence a national network of overdose prevention facilities. Such legislative licensing proposals could be another part of the package set before the Lord Advocate to confer legal protection on service staff.

But Sweeney believes the network could morph into shopfront-style cafes where users could check the potency of drugs (a big factor in deaths), the NHS could guarantee safety and dose prescribing and could displace the criminal supply chain – eventually.

Earlier this year, MSPs unanimously backed LibDem MSP Liam McArthur’s call for diversion schemes, a heroin treatment network and decriminalising drug possession for personal use in Scotland.

That decision is also reserved to Westminster.

Yet de-facto decriminalisation is already happening in parts of England where 14 police forces are diverting drug users to education, health advice or treatment programmes instead of charging them to reduce reoffending, improve health and cut costs. Thames Valley Police use a phone App to divert most users who escape the criminal record that so often blights their life chances – as long as they attend services.

Phone App diversion takes one police officer 20 minutes, compared to 12 hours processing the average drugs possession offence – a massive saving in time and resources.

All of this is happening right now under Priti Patel’s nose, and with her Policing Minister Kit Malthouse’s explicit consent. As he told the Scottish Affairs Committee about Durham’s similar scheme "The Checkpoint Diversion Programme ... seems to me a wholly laudable project".

So, what is the Scottish Government waiting for?

According to Martin Powell of drugs charity Transform, "Scotland could implement drug offence diversion schemes right now. And on drug consumption rooms, it’s time to stop asking Westminster for permission and just do it. If they object – manage that. My gut feeling is that if Holyrood acted, the British Government would make a lot of noise but do very little."

Of course, DCRs are just one tiny part of a complex addiction problem which, as campaigner Annemarie Ward points out, arises from an epidemic of trauma in Scotland’s poorest communities. She points out that naloxone can reverse heroin overdoses but not street valium or cocaine and backs the Scottish Conservatives Right to Recovery Bill which enshrines a right to treatment, particularly rehab, in law. But other experts in the field suggest 90 per cent of addicts aren’t ready for immediate rehab and need better support services as a priority.

The whole complex area is ripe for examination by Scotland’s Citizens’ Assembly.

But meanwhile drug users and families need pragmatic action from Scottish ministers. Important points of principle are enhanced not undermined by powerful examples of local collaboration – as Scotland’s pioneering Violence Reduction Unit amply demonstrates.

So it’s time for the Scottish Government to exploit the legal loopholes uncovered at great personal cost by campaigners like Peter Krykant – and act now.

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of The Herald.