Lord Advocate to re-examine drug consumption rooms

Addressing Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee, Dorothy Bain QC said “the question of what is in the public interest” could be re-examined in relation to the facilities.

Drug consumption rooms let users take substances under medical supervision and with safe equipment.

Scotland recorded 1,339 drug deaths last year – the highest in Europe.

She said consumption rooms would have “to be looked at again in very careful circumstances, where a very detailed set of proposals are brought and we’re confident that they are based on sound evidence”.

In September she announced that possession of class A drugs may incur a police warning rather than prosecution under a new “diversion from prosecution” policy that effectively decriminalises possession.

She said at the time: “I have decided that an extension of the recorded police warning guidelines to include possession offences for class A drugs is appropriate. Police officers may therefore choose to issue a recorded police warning for simple possession offences for all classes of drugs.”