Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Donald Turvill

Edinburgh drug users to be interviewed over proposed substance checking service

Edinburgh Council is set to hold interviews with drug users in a bid to understand how drug checking services in the city could reduce the risk of overdoses.

The local authority has agreed to expand a feasibility study looking at introducing safe consumption rooms to also include testing facilities which could alert users if substances are potentially dangerous.

One councillor said the two approaches to harm reduction, both of which remain difficult to set-up legally, caters towards "very different type of drug users" however, adding drug checking uptake would "primarily be younger people".

READ MORE: Edinburgh social care services slammed in 'appalling' report

Drug deaths hit a record high in the Capital when figures were last released, with 109 fatalities linked with drug use in Edinburgh in 2021, up from 95 the year before.

Edinburgh Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (EADP) has been progressing work on a study on setting up Drug Consumption Rooms (DCR) after councillors backed the move.

Its work will now also encompass drug checking, with the partnership set to engage with "people who use drugs, affected family members, decision makers and service staff" to help the council understand "how drug checking might reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the city".

The Scottish Government's Drug Deaths Taskforce is already exploring a drug checking programme with an aim to "build evidence and facilitate development of services in Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen".

A council report said: "The team delivering the DCR study are exceptionally well positioned to take on this additional work (having led the study referenced in the council motion above) and the ADP has agreed to fund the additional component of that research."

It added this has been incorporated as a sub-project at a cost of £15,000.

Councillor Finlay McFarlane, who has pushed for progress on new actions to tackle drug deaths since his election to the council last year, said: "It's incredibly encouraging also for my colleagues from all parties that Edinburgh as a city is choosing to take such a positive and open minded approach to any and all solutions be them novel or otherwise to addressing the drugs death crisis.

"I believe this is one of the tools that can unlock an amazing response.

"Whilst its been taken in with the safe consumption room work in the same group of expertise and the same reporting mechanism, a safe consumption room caters towards a very different type of drug user than a community drug checking facility would aim to support, which would probably primarily be younger people, and the different types of drugs that people take doesn't necessitate the same service.

"It would not be appropriate in my view for someone to go to a safe consumption centre to access drug checking facilities for example."

READ NEXT:

Edinburgh councillors back holiday let in city centre despite 'crackdown'

Edinburgh's St Giles' Cathedral to start charging visitors after drop in donations

Vulnerable Edinburgh residents miss out on £2.4 million social care support as council claws back funds

Edinburgh garden group 'relieved' after couple's house plan for bowling green gets refuse

Edinburgh Wetherspoon's bid to open drinks balcony thrown out by council despite huge support

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.