Tag Archives: overdose prevention centres

Scotland needs urgent action on overdose prevention centres

By Euan Davidson | Fri 15th September 2023 - 12:00 pm

It is not often that an announcement from a Scottish Government appointee makes me cheer, but the news that the Lord Advocate has finally given the green light to proceed with Overdose Prevention Centres did just that.

The fight to tackle Scotland’s drug death crisis has been a long and often fractious one. Too often, it has been dragged into the constitutional quagmire that bogs so much progress down. Both of Scotland’s Governments have let the victims of this crisis and their families down too many times. Whether it was the Scottish Government’s decision to decimate rehab budgets or the stubborn refusal of the Tories to accept the evidence that mass criminalisation is failing the most vulnerable.

So, finally, we have a ray of light after the Lord Advocate has said that it is not in the public interest to prosecute these much-needed services. Quite why it has taken this long to arrive at that conclusion is anyone’s guess, but this is a welcome step nonetheless.