The Glasgow drug consumption room: A job half done?

Abstract

This article discusses the introduction of the safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow and considers some of its potential consequences. The authors acknowledge the benefits of such a facility, but propose that while it goes some way towards addressing issues such as overdose, it simultaneously raises two further, intertwined, problems, namely where the drugs to be consumed come from and how they are paid for. Legal supply and free provision of the specific substances to those in need are presented as possible solutions. This would have the almost immediate effect of reducing the flow of drug money to organised crime while concurrently negating the need for people who inject drugs (PWIDS) to resort to criminal activity in order to fund their habit. Advantages of this proposition are considered.