DRUG addicts will be able shoot heroin and snort cocaine in Britain's first ever legal drug consumption room.
Officials approved the "fix rooms" in Scotland to help tackle the country's drug deaths epidemic, the worst in Europe.
The £2.3 million centre in the east end of Glasgow will allow users to take their own illegal drugs under medical supervision.
Addicts will be given sterile equipment to inject and supervised by trained staff while using.
The Scottish Government pushed for so-called "fix rooms" in 2016 after an HIV outbreak in the city.
But it has been held up after it was embroiled in years of political wrangling between the Scottish and UK governments.
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However, plans were approved by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board meeting this morning.
The pilot project will sit on Hunter Street and is just a short distance from the iconic Barras market and the Barrowland Ballroom.
The building is a long grey construction on one level with a sign outside the facility which reads: "Enhanced Drug Treatment Service, Glasgow alcohol and drugs recovery services."
The official announcement of detailed proposals was made at the board meeting this morning.
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The board involves NHS and council officials and it recommended approval of the scheme in a report.
The report states: "There is overwhelming international evidence which demonstrates that safer drug consumption facilities can improve the health, wellbeing and recovery of people who use the facility and reduce the negative impact that public injecting has on local communities and businesses."
It highlights that following the HIV outbreak, an assessment "found there are approximately 400 to 500 people injecting drugs in public places in Glasgow city centre on a regular basis".
It adds: "Injecting in public spaces increases the risk of infection and other drug-related harms, and also causes a risk to the public from discarded injecting equipment and needles."
The Scottish Government backs the plans but some MSPs have raised concerns about the impact on the local area, including on businesses.
A local politician who did not want to be named highlighted concerns for the community.
They said: “The concern would be that the consumption rooms might attract even more drug dealers and crime into the area.
“Local businesses such as Morrisons and the Pram Centre have had problems in the past and this could increase. And there is now more residential property close by, in Bell Street and across the railway in Havannah Street.”
While SNP’s John Mason, supports the plan and said drug dealing caused misery in his constituency.
He said: “It is clearly safer for someone to take drugs in an environment that is overseen and [where] medical help is available if anything goes wrong.
“However, the model still seems to rely on drug dealing by organised crime gangs. This also leads to misery for many, with problems including debt, theft to pay for drugs, forcing women into prostitution to pay for drugs, and violence between drug gangs. Therefore, I would like to see that side tackled as well.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he backed the idea of a pilot – but not the devolution of drug laws the SNP is calling for.
Speaking in Glasgow today, he said that he did not support the devolution of drugs laws, but added: “I add the caveat that the Lord Advocate has already indicated that we have opportunities in Scotland to do things differently.
“We have the opportunity to do drug consumption rooms in Scotland without devolving the law, it’s about presumption against prosecution, for example, being one part around possession as it is around safe consumption rooms.”
Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie said there was no safe way to take illegal drugs – but that it was about finding “safer ways to try and protect people”.
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Last week, Scotland’s top law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC effectively green-lighted a drug consumption room by saying she wouldn’t prosecute users.
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