Most Scots now support setting up drug consumption rooms being blocked by Home Secretary Priti Patel, according to research.
The news comes after a campaign by the Daily Record to highlight Scotland’s soaring drug deaths and call for them to be treated as a health emergency.
Proposals to introduce Scotland’s first drug consumption room (DCR) in Glasgow, enabling people who inject drugs to do so in a safe and supervised environment, have been blocked by the Home Office.
The study, by academics in Glasgow and Liverpool, questioned more than 1500 people in Scotland and found 61 per cent agreed with introducing the facilities.
Dr Andrew McAuley, a senior research fellow at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: “This latest research not only suggests that Scots support DCRs but also that giving the public more information about the benefits of DCRs, such as reducing drug deaths among people who use them and also that they can save the NHS money because of the overdose deaths and infections that they prevent, would make them more supportive.”
Harry Sumnall, professor of substance use at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “Our study findings show that not
only is there good public support for DCRs in Scotland but, when some of the concerns that the public might have about them are addressed and the impact of drug-related deaths on families is explained, there is even greater support.”
Susanne Millar, chairwoman of Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership, which funded the study, said public support for drug consumption rooms “bolsters the unequivocal evidence of the urgent need for such a facility”.
