The UK’s first “shooting gallery” in Glasgow features a “chill zone” for drug users who are high after injecting heroin. The facility, costing taxpayers £2.3million a year, is due to open on Monday.
The Safer Drugs Consumption Facility, dubbed ‘The Thistle’, will accommodate up to 30 drug users at a time. It is located in an existing health clinic on Hunter Street in the east end of the city, near the famous Barrowland Ballroom.
Addicts will be allowed to consume illegal drugs including heroin and cocaine under the supervision of clinical staff 365 days a year between 9am and 9pm. Plans for the centre showed an “aftercare” area with chairs and sofas but in the final version this has been rebranded as a “chill zone”.
The lounge area features sofas, comfy chairs and pouffes, as well as a wall-mounted flat-screen TV, potted plants and a well-equipped kitchen area with a Lavazza tea and coffee machine.
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The opening of the facility follows a long-running row between the Scottish and UK governments, with SNP ministers insisting it was vital to cut the sky-high number of drug deaths in Scotland – by far the highest in western Europe on a per capita basis.
Although the Home Office has refused to legalise class-A drugs, Tory ministers eventually said they would not block the move and Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain has guaranteed that centre users will not be prosecuted for possession.
Injection bay areas in the Using Space at The Thistle drugs consumption room
(Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)
She said: “I have concluded that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute people for simple possession offences when they are already in a place where help with their issues can be offered.”
But Ms Bain admitted that her order to prosecutors in the Crown Office “may be a source of anxiety for some who live and work near the facility” on Hunter Street. It is located near to the Glasgow Pram Centre, where many young families go to buy equipment for their babies, and opposite the car park for a Morrisons supermarket.
In an attempt to calm angry Glaswegians who don’t want to see the use of class-A drugs legalised in the city, she added: “The policy is very narrow and does not mean other offending will be tolerated. Supply offences are not included and Police Scotland will enforce these, and other crimes, as they always have.”
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