Move follows increase in drug users switching from injecting heroin to smoking crack in Glasgow and Edinburgh
Scottish ministers are considering a change in the law banning smoking in public places to allow drug users to smoke crack cocaine in special facilities in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Health experts said there had been a significant increase in the number of users switching from injecting heroin to smoking crack in both cities, which they said raised new health challenges and opportunities.
Officials in Glasgow have told the Scottish government they want to expand the UK’s first officially sanctioned drugs consumption room at the Thistle centre – which opened earlier this year in the city’s east end to allow the supervised injection of heroin using fresh needles – to include enclosed, ventilated booths for crack smokers.
Kelda Gaffney, Glasgow’s chief social work officer, has told the city’s integrated joint board, which blends health and social services into a unified care service, that since the centre opened it had become clear that adding a smoking room was “critical” to its success.
