Edinburgh Council is about to hold interviews with drug users in a bid to understand how substance checking services in the city could reduce risk of overdose.
Drug deaths hit a record high in the Capital when figures were last released, with 109 fatalities linked with drug use in Edinburgh in 2021, up from 95 the year before.
The local authority has agreed to expand a feasibility study looking at introducing safe consumption rooms to also include testing facilities which could alert users if substances are potentially dangerous.
One councillor said the two approaches to harm reduction, both of which remain difficult to set-up legally, caters towards “very different type of drug users” adding drug checking uptake would “primarily be younger people”.
Edinburgh Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (EADP) has been progressing work on a study on setting up Drug Consumption Rooms (DCR) after councillors backed the move.
Its work will now also encompass drug checking, with the partnership set to engage with “people who use drugs, affected family members, decision makers and service staff” to help the council understand “how drug checking might reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the city”.
The Scottish Government’s Drug Deaths Taskforce is already exploring a drug checking programme with an aim to “build evidence and facilitate development of services in Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen”.
A council report said: “The team delivering the DCR study are exceptionally well positioned to take on this additional work (having led the study referenced in the council motion above) and the ADP has agreed to fund the additional component of that research.”
It added this has been incorporated as a sub-project at a cost of £15,000.
Cllr Finlay McFarlane, who has pushed for progress on new actions to tackle drug deaths since his election to the council last year, said: “It’s incredibly encouraging also for my colleagues from all parties that Edinburgh as a city is choosing to take such a positive and open minded approach to any and all solutions be them novel or otherwise to addressing the drugs death crisis.
“I believe this is one of the tools that can unlock an amazing response.
“Whilst its been taken in with the safe consumption room work in the same group of expertise and the same reporting mechanism, a safe consumption room caters towards a very different type of drug user than a community drug checking facility would aim to support, which would probably primarily be younger people, and the different types of drugs that people take doesn’t necessitate the same service.
“It would not be appropriate in my view for someone to go to a safe consumption centre to access drug checking facilities for example.”
by Donald Turvill Local Democracy Reporter
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
