THE UK Government “will not intervene” with plans to introduce a drug consumption room in Glasgow, it emerged today.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said Tory ministers would not attempt to block the proposed pilot scheme, despite its continuing opposition to the idea.
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On Monday, Scotland’s top law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC effectively green-lighted a drug consumption room where addicts will be able to inject by saying she wouldn’t prosecute users.
Speaking in the Commons today, Mr Jack was asked about the issue and said: “Drug consumption rooms are not the easy solution honourable members may think.
“There is no safe way to take illegal drugs. They devastate lives, they ruin families, and they damage communities.
“And the UK Government believes that the police and the Procurator Fiscal Service should fully enforce the law.
“However, if the Scottish Government and the Lord Advocate decide to proceed with a pilot on DCRs, the UK Government will not intervene.”
Mr Jack told the Nats they have “no more excuses” if they do not now go ahead with the scheme.
He said: “The Lord Advocate and the Scottish Government appear to have achieved a workaround that allows them to have a pilot drug consumption room, probably in Glasgow, and the UK Government will not intervene in that so you now have no more excuses.”
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard asked the Scottish Secretary for an assurance that he would not use any administrative or legislative means to “frustrate or block” the pilot policy.
Mr Jack responded: “Yes.”
The UK Government has repeatedly refused to back long-standing plans for a so-called fix room in Glasgow that campaigners insist would cut substance abuse deaths.
But in the landmark statement on the legality of the idea, said: “On the basis of the information I have been provided, I would be prepared to publish a prosecution policy that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility.”
The Scottish Government said the statement meant authorities in Glasgow authorities “may now progress their proposal to set up a facility which can operate within the existing legal framework”.
UK-wide drug laws are reserved to Westminster, and on Monday, when the prosecution policy was announced, the Home Office stuck to its position and said “there is no safe way to take illegal drugs”.
The UK Government department added: ” Drug consumption rooms are not legal in the UK. A range of crimes would be committed in the course of running such a facility, by both service users and staff.”
Glasgow Caledonian University law lecturer Dr Nick McKerrell said the UK Government “clearly could not enforce arrests as Police Scotland are operationally independent from any government force”.
But he also said that staff working in a pilot drug consumption room could still face legal risks.
He said: “What about liability if someone was harmed or died?”
Work to open the drug consumption room – expected in Glasgow city centre – could start within weeks, but it’s not known when the facility could open.
Proposals could be agreed by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board – a body involving council and NHS bosses – on September 27.