Glasgow’s controversial “safer drug consumption facility” is due to open later this year after a lengthy political battle between the SNP and the Home Office. The stand-off was eventually resolved when Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain said heroin users wouldn’t be prosecuted.

Now councillors at the other end of the M8 in Edinburgh have been told they “should take steps to introduce SDCF provision in the city”, with officials adding that “this should ideally include more than one location”. The Old Town and Leith are the likeliest areas to be considered for a ‘shooting gallery’.

A feasibility study by the City of Edinburgh Council told councillors it would cost “between £1-2million per year” to run. It would allow addicts to inject heroin in a hygienic environment, with medics on hand and without the threat of prosecution for possession of Class A drugs.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters