The UK’s first and only safer drug consumption facility opens on Monday.

First Minister John Swinney has greeted the facility, housed near The Barras market in Glasgow, as a big step forward. And he’s right of course.

Many nations with far lesser drug addiction deaths than Scotland have embraced these services. They are part of the treatment fabric and should be on offer in any society that believes in helping its most afflicted people. The best resolution any addicted person might strive for would be to break free from drugs.

But life doesn’t pan out that way for so many, as our shameful drug death ­statistics show year after year. That means Scotland had to choose between looking the other way or providing services like The Thistle, which will cost £2million a year to........

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