Safe space for injecting drugs is approved in Scotland

After a five year political fight, approval has been given for the first drug consumption facility in Scotland that allows users to inject illegal drugs under supervision.The breakthrough came earlier this month when Scotland’s chief law officer, Dorothy Bain, decided that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute anyone using such a facility. This removed a legal obstacle to the proposal and was soon followed by a statement from the UK government, which has control over drug policy, that it would not block the plan. This is despite its continued opposition based on the argument that there is no safe way to inject drugs.The Scottish government has been trying since 2018 to pilot safe injecting spaces as part of its response to the country having the worst drug overdose death rate in Europe: 1051 such deaths were recorded in 2022. Although this was down on previous years…
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