Scotland has officially the worst rate of drugs deaths in the EU.
Despite public health being devolved for over a decade, guess whose fault it is?
WeStMiNsTeR https://news.stv.tv/scotland/drug-deaths-soar-but-public-health-emergency-rejected?top
Despite public health being devolved for over a decade, guess whose fault it is?
WeStMiNsTeR https://news.stv.tv/scotland/drug-deaths-soar-but-public-health-emergency-rejected?top
1187 people died in 2018 because of drugs in Scotland, three times that of the rUK.
Consumption rooms have a number of problems associated with them and the BMJ have not stated they are definitely effective in reducing deaths, it being very difficult to assess.
It is possible that the existence of a safe environment for drug injecting might push someone hovering on the brink of injecting heroin for the first time to go over the edge.
DCRs attract even more users to the area – the ‘honeypot’ effect.
Preventing individual instances of dangerous injecting is a somewhat limited goal. It is highly unlikely that an individual user will always inject their drugs within DCRs, so they probably won't stop them contracting blood borne disease anyway.
In order to prevent overdose, you need to have medical staff on site 24/7. A costly business.
And finally, taking drugs is illegal, which makes consumption rooms illegal. This means that primary legislation is needed and this is problematic.
None of this is important to the SNP who are using DCRs to try and blame another Government for their own failings.