THE opening date for a proposed safe drug consumption facility, set to be the UK’s first, has been announced.

Glasgow City Council hopes to open a safe consumption room in a health centre in Hunter Street on October 21, it has been announced.

The Lord Advocate has given the green light, saying it would not be in the “public interest” to prosecute drug users at a safe consumption room if one was opened.

It comes after official statistics published earlier this week showed an increase in drug-related deaths in Scotland.

Speaking on a visit to the Edinburgh Cancer Centre at the Western General Hospital on Wednesday, First Minister John Swinney (below) said Scotland had a “deep problem” with drugs and said the Scottish Government was working to “strengthen our response to the drug deaths crisis”.

He said: “The level of drug deaths is wholly unacceptable and I’m very sorry for the heartache it has caused to families who lose loved ones.”

Swinney highlighted investment in rehabilitation services and the rollout of naloxone kits.

He added: “There’s a huge amount of work going on to do that, but we do have a deep problem in Scotland with drugs deaths and I would reassure members of the public that tackling that issue is fundamentally at the heart of the Government’s agenda and we will sustain the measures that we’re taking forward to deliver better outcomes.”

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As well as expanding rehab capacity, he said the safe consumption facility would be available in the “near future”.

The First Minister continued: “These are all measures that are designed to tackle the issue, but we must be constantly attentive to whether there’s more we can do to tackle what is an unacceptable scourge on our society.”

Discussing the safe consumption facility in Glasgow, councillor Allan Casey (above) said: “The rise in drug-related deaths last year makes clear we are in a public health emergency and one that requires radical action.

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“Glasgow has well-established alcohol and drug recovery services that work effectively with the city’s high number of problem drug users, however people with problematic alcohol and drug use experience significant challenges which puts their health and well-being at considerable risk.

“The opening of the safer drug consumption facility will help reduce fatal and non-fatal overdoses by providing users with a safe, clean place to inject their own drugs in the presence of trained medical staff.

“The urgent need for such a facility couldn’t be more important and we are only a matter of weeks away, with an estimated opening date of October 21.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “Every death from the misuse of drugs is a tragedy for those who have lost their lives, their families and for their wider communities.

“While we have no plans currently to change the UK drug laws, through our mission driven government, we will take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers in society – including drug misuse – and better support people live longer, healthier lives.”