The path is clear for the UK’s first safe drug consumption room, campaigners say, after a landmark decision from Scotland’s chief public prosecutor.

Dorothy Bain, the Scottish Lord Advocate, said it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for possession while they were in a designated room.

Attempts to introduce the facilities have previously been blocked by the Home Office, but with Scotland’s rate of drug deaths among the highest in Europe, the SNP government has been looking for a solution.

Research shows the facilities can reduce overdose deaths as well as drug-related litter.

“On the basis of the information I have been provided, I would be prepared to publish a prosecution policy that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility,” said Dorothy Bain KC.

In a letter to the Scottish parliament, Bain added: “I wish to be clear that any statement of prosecution policy does not, and could not, represent legalisation of drugs or decriminalisation of the offence of being in possession of a controlled substance.“