The UK’s first supervised drug use room will open in Glasgow on Monday 13/1. The goal, according to Scottish Prime Minister John Sweeney, is to reduce the dangers of drug use.
Scotland has the highest rate of death associated with it in Europe and its government has been looking for years to experiment with such supervised spaces.
This plan was suspended for a long time due to disagreements between the Scottish and British governments, but was finally approved in September 2023 by the city of Glasgow.
The pilot project will allow drug addicts to use drugs in a clean environment with medical staff available.
“While this space is not a panacea, it is an important new step that will complement other efforts to reduce the harms and deaths from drug use. The number of drug related deaths in Scotland remains very high” said John Sweeney visiting the site which was launched today.
1,172 drug-related deaths in 2023
The operation of a drug use room was first mooted in 2016 following a sudden rise in HIV cases in Glasgow.
After strong opposition to the plan from previous Conservative governments, the current Labor government of Keir Starmer appears to be adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
According to Statistics Scotland, 1,172 people died after using drugs in Scotland in 2023, 121 more than the previous year. This number is almost double what it was ten years ago.
In 2023 there were almost 23 deaths ‘from drug poisoning’ per 100,000 people in Scotland, excluding a proportion of the population due to age.
By comparison, the average death rate was estimated in the same year at 8.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in England and Wales and at 2.5 per 100,000 inhabitants (between 15 and 64 years) in the European Union in 2022, according to data from the European Center Monitoring of Drugs and Addiction.
Source: APE-MPE, AFP
