Drug consumption room plan for Edinburgh's Old Town

The UK's only drug consumption room is in Glasgow

Two potential sites for a new drug consumption room have been identified in Edinburgh's Old Town by council officials.

The facility would allow people to inject illegally-bought heroin or cocaine under medical supervision.

It would be the second facility of its kind in the UK after the Thistle Centre opened in Glasgow in January.

A report by the city's Integration Joint Board (IJB) revealed the facility could open on the Cowgate or Spittal Street.

A consultation will run in the new year to gather the views of locals on the proposals.

The proposed facility would be located either in the same building as, or very near to, a homeless day centre or service providing treatment for drug addiction.

The report said there had been 36 drug-related deaths within a 15-minute walk of Spittal Street and 34 in the same distance from the Cowgate in the last three years.

It is not possible to estimate the cost of the project until a final site is chosen.

A consultation would inform a business case for the facility to be put to the Scottish government for final approval.

In the report, the IJB's chief officer Christine Laverty said: "Such a public consultation will attract substantial attention and raise both hopes and fears within different communities."

The lounge area at the UK's only drug consumption centre in Glasgow

The first drug consumption room in Glasgow faced an uphill political struggle for nearly a decade before it was open.

It was first proposed in 2016 following an HIV outbreak in the city.

The UK government initially refused to provide a waiver to the Misuse of Drugs Act which would ensure users would not be criminalised.

It was only when Scotland's senior law officer Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said it would not be in the public interest to prosecute service users that the path was cleared for the Thistle to open in January.

As of the end of June, the service had been used 3,554 times to inject by 377 different people and had dealt with 48 different medical emergencies.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "The UK's first safer drug consumption facility, the Thistle, has already saved lives through the ability of staff to respond quickly in the event of an overdose.

"We are open to considering well-developed proposals for additional facilities while the Thistle pilot continues to gather robust evidence and Scottish government officials have been working with Edinburgh ADP colleagues as they consider a potential facility."