Safer Drug Consumption Facility Evaluation: Preparatory work and baseline data collection

The Lord Advocate recently announced that users of a planned safer drug consumption facility (SDCF) in Glasgow could use the facility without fear of prosecution for being in possession of illegal drugs for their own use. On 27 Sept 2023, Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership agreed to implement the facility. At the Lord Advocate’s request, the SDCF will initially be run as a pilot and subject to an independent evaluation. A robust impact evaluation is essential to determine the extent the SDCF achieves the desired outcomes, the extent of any unintended negative consequences and the distribution of these positive and negative outcomes. Public Health Scotland (PHS) have agreed to provide a total of £202k funding through their Investment Fund in the NHS financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 to undertake the essential planning, preparatory and baseline work necessary for the evaluation. A Research Collaboration Agreement between PHS, GCU other academic partners will be formed for the delivery of this work. GCU would take lead on pilot work to support the linkage of data on individuals attending the forthcoming facility and would also develop tools to collect drug-related environment data through systematic social observation.