Scottish government seeks support for drug addict ‘fix room’ in Glasgow

MSPs will be asked to support plans to establish the UK’s first safe injection room for drug addicts in Glasgow, the BBC reports.

The city council thinks the so-called “fix-room” will curb street injecting and HIV.

However, the Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC (pictured), has said the facility would be illegal unless the UK government makes a change in the law.

Public health minister Aileen Campbell is to use a debate in Holyrood to gain cross-party support for the move.

She will argue fix rooms elsewhere in the world have proven effective and will call on her colleagues to unite in asking the UK government to change the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to legalise them.

The facility would let addicts use their own drugs in 12 separate booths with hygienic equipment and would also have an inhalation room and treatment area.

The facility would allow addicts to bring their own drugs to inject in 12 separate booths using hygienic equipment, while also providing an inhalation room and a separate area where addicts would be given access to treatment.

Ms Campbell said the rooms improved access to health care and intensive drug treatment for drug addicts.

She added: “All of this leaves me wondering just how much more evidence in support of these facilities does the Westminster government require before it will act?

“How many more people will need to die before they agree that these facilities could save lives?

“There are safe consumption rooms in more than 70 cities around the world but not one in the UK. That is a position that is no longer tenable.”