LIFESAVING DRUG ROOMS GET GREEN LIGHT

Triumph for campaigners as Lord Advocate announcement means drug consumption rooms can operate without risk of prosecution

- MARK MCGIVERN

Law chief statement paves way for drug consumption rooms to open without fear of prosecution | Victory for Record campaign as experts claim decision will help turn tide on drug deaths crisis

CAMPAIGNERS have claimed a major victory after Scotland’s top law officer finally gave the green light for lifesaving drug consumption rooms. 

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain’s statement on Safe Drug Consumption Facilities was greeted by calls for rapid action, led by First Minister Humza Yousaf.

The move, championed by the Daily Record, will now allow a safe room to be set up in Glasgow, where the city council claim it could cut drug deaths.

The issue has rumbled on for five years, with calls for a change in the law at Westminster to allow the facility.

After the Scottish Government made clear in 2021 that it was determined to go it alone on the facilities, which seek to cut overdose deaths, all attention turned to Dorothy Bain KC.

She released a statement yesterday that made clear it would “not be in the public interest” to prosecute people in a safe drugs consumption room with possession of illegal substances.

Bain stressed she had not been asked to “sign off or approve” such a facility but it is now clear that no one using such a facility at an authorised pilot to be set up in Glasgow will fear prosecution.