The UK's policing minister has admitted he has never bothered to visit a Drug Consumption Room.
Kit Malthouse has been slammed by campaigning Glasgow MP Alison Thewliss after she challenged him in the House of Commons.
Malthouse has rejected out of hand such an approach in Glasgow, despite mounting pressure to do so to tackle Scotland’s drug death crisis.
His refusal comes in the face of record drug deaths in the UK as a whole, which has left to Boris Johnson doubling down on a hardline War on Drugs that critics claim cannot be won.
Thewliss quizzed Malthouse on Tuesday on whether he’d visited a Safer Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF) like the one she had visited in Geneva, Switzerland, before writing off such facilities in the UK.
There are currently more than 100 in major cities in Europe and the USA.
Shame faced Malthouse admitted he hadn’t.
Thewliss blasted: “It is simply not credible for the UK’s Drug Minister to reject safe drug consumption rooms when he hasn’t even bothered to visit one.
“Kit Malthouse continues to act in direct opposition to expert advice on safe consumption facilities and has missed many opportunities to meaningfully reform drug policy.
“A punitive approach to drugs does not work. It has never worked, and it is time to try a new approach.
“It is true that safe drug consumption rooms are not a silver bullet in the fight against drug deaths, but they have been shown internationally to reduce the harm caused by drugs, and ultimately save lives.
“The UK Government should grasp the opportunity to take a public health approach to drug laws and reduce drug deaths on our streets this winter.”
Thewliss asked Malthouse to travel to Glasgow to view the alternative under his plans - drug users having to inject in “wastegrounds, in bin sheds and in lanes away from Christmas shoppers”.
He declined to commit to take her up on the offer, despite being well aware of the unofficial facility set up by Peter Krykant in the city, which is now touring the communities in the UK worst hit by drugs.
In 2020, 1339 people died in Scotland in 2020 of a drug-related death.
That marked a new record and was 15 times worse than the European average deaths.
Latest estimates released yesterday, based on Police reports, have finally suggested that drug death numbers north of the border may have reached a plateau.
In the quarter from July to September 2021 there were 285 suspected drug deaths, 13 per cent fewer than the previous quarter and 10 per cent less than in the same period the previous year.
The Home Office has continued to bluntly refuse to consider DCRs - sometimes referred to as Overdose Prevention Centres.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have no plans to introduce drug consumption rooms in the UK.
"A range of crimes would be committed in the course of running such a facility, by both service users and staff, such as possession of a controlled drug, being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug, knowingly permitting the supply of a controlled drug on a premises or encouraging or assisting these and other offences.
“The Home Office published a 10-year drugs strategy earlier this month which presents the whole-government response to drugs. It will drive down drug supply and demand, which includes supporting people through treatment and recovery and an even tougher response to criminal supply chains and the demand that fuels these illegal markets.”
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