Proposals for a drug consumption rooms in Edinburgh have been met with backlash, with MSPs calling it the ‘wrong approach’.
The sites, proposed by the city’s Integration Joint Board (IJB), are located in Edinburgh Old Town; on the Cowgate and on Spittal Street. They were chosen for their proximity to areas with a high concentration of drug-related deaths.
The first experimental drug consumption room, Glasgow’s The Thistle, is a Scottish Government-funded shooting gallery open seven days a week, and has effectively been declared a ‘prosecution-free drug zone’ by the Lord Advocate. It is still in its pilot stage.
A consultation will be held, likely early next year, for locals to have their say on the proposals. Christine Laverty, the IJB’s Chief Officer, noted: “Such a public consultation will attract substantial attention and raise both hopes and fears within different communities.”
Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, wrote in the Edinburgh News criticising the proposals as “spending unknown amounts of public money on something to make it easier for addicts to stay hooked.”
She continued: “What they need is rehab to get them off drugs, not the means to keep them in a stupor.”
Annie Wells MSP posted on X: “State-sponsored drug use isn’t the answer. After Glasgow’s experience, another drug consumption room in Edinburgh is the wrong approach. SNP must focus on prevention at the source and back our Right to Recovery Bill.”