Glasgow, Scotland: tackling injection of drugs in public spaces through introduction of safer facilities

Abstract

In October, 2016, approval was granted by the Glasgow City Council Integration Joint Board to proceed with a business case for a co-located safer drug consumption facility and heroin-assisted treatment service in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. According to Saket Priyadarshi, lead clinician on this project, “the main aim is to engage and build trust and relationships with a high-risk population on their terms”. Supervised injectable heroin or injectable methadone versus optimised oral methadone as treatment for chronic heroin addicts in England after persistent failure in orthodox treatment (RIOTT): a randomised trialTreatment with supervised injectable heroin leads to significantly lower use of street heroin than does supervised injectable methadone or optimised oral methadone. UK Government proposals should be rolled out to support the positive response that can be achieved with heroin maintenance treatment for previously unresponsive chronic heroin addicts. Full-Text PDF