THE UK’s first “shooting gallery” for heroin addicts will appeal for immunity from Scotland’s top prosecutor to ensure police do not raid the pioneering unit once it opens.

Addicts will be able to get their fixes in the controversial complex, which will cost £2.3 million a year to run and is to be sited in a Glasgow shopping district.

But staff and heroin users attending the pilot scheme, to be based by the River Clyde between Trongate and the Saltmarket, could face prosecution for drug dealing if they so much as handle a bin containing a heroin needle.

Health chiefs are now set to appeal to the Lord Advocate James Wolffe to change the strict interpretation of the sentencing policy for such offences, because asking the UK Government to do so would take too long.

Both staff and heroin users attending the pilot scheme, to be located beside the River Clyde between Trongate and the Saltmarket, may face prosecution as the law stands.

Under strict interpretations of the law, if staff so much as handle a bin containing a used heroin needle they could be charged with drug dealing.

A report from Susanne Millar of Glasgow City Council’s social work department claims the longevity of the proposed rooms is dependent on a legal exemption that allows users to inject street drugs undermedical supervision they have bought safely.

Ms Millar said it is clear that the units “cannot be established unless there is either a change in the law or a change in current prosecution policy”.

With drugs legislation reserved to Westminster, any major changes would need UK Government support and is likely to be years away, she adds.

As a result, the preferred option in light of the “public health emergency” faced in Glasgow is to seek a change in prosecution policy from Mr Wolffe.

The report says council and health board lawyers are currently helping prepare an approach to the Lord Advocate “in the hope that a favourable response to the plan can be achieved”.

Police Scotland will also have to agree a “tolerance zone” in the vicinity of the Safer Drug Consumption Facility, if the experiment is to be a success.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said it was yet to receive a detailed proposal in relation to the plans.

A Crown Office spokesman noted: “Misuse of drugs legislation remains a reserved issue and any such scheme has a number of different policy considerations that the Scottish Government will want to consider in detail.”

“The Lord Advocate has yet to receive a detailed proposal in relation to any such scheme.”

Today’s meeting of the IJB will also hear that a location for the safer injecting pilot scheme has been identified, The location for the controversial unit was not the first choice of the city’s Health and Social Care Partnership, which has been assessing locations south west of the city centre. However, the newly chosen site may not be big enough to accommodate areas for users to smoke heroin safely, as had been hoped in the facility’s original business plan.

Ms Millar says health concerns are so pressing the project should go ahead regardless: “should a feasibility study find space is limited then the establishment of a safer inhalation facility would not be progressed at this time.”

She will tell a health board meeting today that given the uncertainties, it is not possibly to say when the premises will open.

Her report also includes details about how the facility will operate. There will be a reception area, up to 12 injecting booths for those using street drugs, and an ‘aftercare’ area, as well as six booths for people prescribed pharmaceutical heroin in a separate part of the building.

The Heroin Assisted Treatment programme for drug users who have exhausted other treatment options will have the capacity to provide injectable diamorphine to approximately 40-50 patients a day.

Alcohol and cigarettes will be banned and users will not be able to help each other to inject.

The report confirms the cost has been estimated at £2,355,680 a year.

A previous business case said the centre was due to the health costs of drug addiction, including 90 drug users who have been diagnosed with HIV since an outbreak which began in 2015. the SDCF will target some 500 IV drug users who inject drugs daily in the city centre area.

David Liddell, CEO of Scottish Drugs Forum said he was delighted the proposal was still on track. He said he was pleased the debate about drug users had become more enlightened and added: “There is a continuing need to convince wider society that this is a humane approach that seeks to reach out to the most vulnerable in our community.”

He said tolerance zones already existed for services such as needle exchanges and said; “The authorities would need a ‘letter of comfort’ from the Lord Advocate that would assure them that they were not breaking the law in ‘knowingly allowing’ drug use on the premises.”

However called on the IJB not to see the facility for some users to smoke heroin as an optional extra: “Smoking heroin is regarded as less harmful than injecting, it seems inconsistent that we would not offer a facility in which this can be done,” he said.