AN activist has opened a pop-up safe drugs tent after police appeared to turn a blind eye to his mobile van initiative.
Peter Krykant first used a converted minibus as a place for drug users to inject safely in the centre of Glasgow.
Now he has launched tents, which will be manned by volunteers and are equipped with seats and tables, sterile injecting equipment, a defibrillator and naloxone, an overdose reversal drug.
Krykant opened the first 10ft square tent close to a dirty site used by desperate addicts for years – he found within minutes of the launch two users had dropped in to utilise the clean injecting equipment.
READ MORE: Plans for illegal Glasgow drug consumption room backed by forum
Last year the Home Office blocked Glasgow’s plans to open a drug consumption room (DCR), despite several of them being open across Europe’s major cities.
Campaigners hope that Krykant’s efforts will lead to more DCRs opening across the UK.
After the launch of the tent between Glasgow Green and the Barras market, Krykant told the Daily Record: “Police have seen what we’re doing. It seems they don’t want to intervene.
“What is not clear is how anyone would be breaking the law by making it safer for people to take drugs when they were going to be doing so in squalid alleyways or street corners in any case.”
He hopes to use an identical tent in the coming week and has asked volunteers to come and help out.
Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie said: “Any attempt to circumvent the law as it stands to provide an entirely unlicensed and unregulated facility may expose vulnerable people to more risk and harm.”
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