A new report from the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB) has identified two sites for a proposed drug consumption room in the city. The facility would be the first to launch in the UK since The Thistle in Glasgow opened at the beginning of this year.
The report from the EIJB – which is a partnership between the local authority, NHS Lothian and third sector and service user representatives – makes a commitment to developing a business case for consideration by the Scottish Government. The two potential locations identified in the document are on Spittal Street and Cowgate, both in Edinburgh’s Old Town. Around 10 per cent of the city’s drug-related deaths this year have resulted from public injection in the Old Town area, the report states.
The Scottish Government has said it would consider a business case as long as it was ‘informed by a public consultation’, the document says. The consultation – which is planned for early next year – would ‘attract substantial attention and raise both hopes and fears within different communities’, the report acknowledges.
The proposed facility would have seven injection booths, along with a post-use area for additional support. Seven-day opening is ‘considered essential’, the report states, with the opening hours to be determined ‘on the basis of lived and living experience recommendations and the available data on times of overdose in the area’. The service would be integrated with existing outreach teams, and offer additional services like wound care and sexual health.
Although the costings remain unconfirmed pending the final choice of location they are likely to be ‘substantial’, the report says, with Glasgow’s Thistle facility currently backed by £2m annual government funding. The long-delayed Thistle was finally green-lit in late 2023 after Scotland’s lord advocate clarified that it would ‘not be in the public interest’ to prosecute people for possession offences onsite.
Scotland’s drug death figures have long been the worst in Europe, with the most recent figures – for 2023 – recording 1,172 deaths. The official figures for 2024 are expected to be released soon.