PLANS to create a heroin “shooting gallery” in Glasgow city centre are progressing, health chiefs insist.
There were 157 drug deaths in Glasgow in 2015 with heroin and/or morphine the cause or contributing factor in 73 of these deaths.
A legal amendment would be needed before it would be possible to open a safe injecting room, dubbed “shooting galleries” by some. However no legal exemption is required and the facility can be operated under legislation governing needle exchanges, health bodies said.
The programme is a highly specialised clinical intervention in which diamorphine is prescribed for the treatment of heroin addiction. It can only be undertaken by doctors with a licence allowing them to prescribe the medication.
Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership officers continue to work with officials from the Scottish Government to discuss next steps.
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