THE opening of the UK’s first official drugs consumption room in Glasgow has been delayed.
The £2.3 million facility – the first of its kind in the UK – was set to open on October 21 in a bid to help tackle Scotland’s drug death crisis.
However, the opening has been pushed back while checks are conducted on the building.
The site based in the Hunter Street Health and Social Care Centre in the city’s east end will allow addicts to inject drugs such as heroin under the supervision of health professionals.
The centre is said to be able to accommodate 30 users at one time and will be open from 9am to 9pm all year round.
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said the building will open as soon as it passed a “stringent NHS Assure process”.
A spokesperson said: “We are close to opening the UK’s first safe consumption drug facility and like any project of this scale, there are complexities which need to be worked out.
“Whilst we haven’t been able to meet our estimated opening date, all partners continue to work at pace to ensure that we get this service open as soon as possible.
“This will happen once the building passes the stringent NHS Assure process which has been put in place to ensure public safety.”
According to the latest statistics published by National Records of Scotland, the number of Scots who died due to drug misuse has increased in 2023.
A total of 1172 people died, which is an increase of 121 deaths compared with 2022.
Glasgow had one of the highest rates of drug misuse deaths while East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire had the lowest.
In 2022, the rate of drug poisoning deaths in Scotland was more than double the rates of other UK countries.
