IN recent days, your representatives on Glasgow City Council have again shown their readiness to discuss some of the most difficult social issues facing our city. They have also committed to see how best to deliver the radical measures to address these problems.

Lead by my colleague in the SNP City Government Cllr Mhairi Hunter, but supported by all the parties represented on the authority, the council voted unanimously to pursue the provision of a safe consumption facility for drug users in Glasgow. Collectively we have invited Home Secretary Amber Rudd to Glasgow to see with her own eyes the devastation caused by drug misuse.

Around 500 people inject drugs regularly on our city centre streets, people with chaotic lives and complex health needs. Their addiction brings with it the risk of the spread of infectious diseases, most notably HIV and Hepatitis, and the dangers of discarded needles. And across Scotland every year hundreds of people die from drug misuse, mostly heroin. These people are not just addicts but sons and daughters, friends, parents.

So far, the case for a safe drug consumption facility, similar to that in many cities across the world, has been led in Glasgow by health and social work professionals. Their plans and ambitions have however been held up by the UK’s drug laws. But last week our councillors grasped the nettle. Not only did Mhairi’s motion immediately secure the support of Labour but colleagues from several different parties spoke passionately about how addiction affected their own families.

The UK Government holds the power to make this happen. The decision taken by full council is yet another appeal to Tory ministers, and Amber Rudd in particular, to deliver. This is a public health emergency and it needs a health-led response. If we can make a safe consumption facility work in Glasgow it can work anywhere in the UK. We can lead the way in programmes which start with reducing drug-related deaths but then feed into addiction services and programmes which focus on the provision of assistance on housing and employment; real, sustainable routes out of the chronic misuse which has blighted families and communities for generations. The evidence from elsewhere shows a massive reduction in drug deaths, a positive impact on the city environment and a growing public support.

But awaiting action from Westminster cannot be an excuse for inaction in Glasgow. We must take lessons from other cities across the world which have made this happen. We must start the two-way conversation with local communities and third sector partners to make the case for a safe consumption facility, to show how the evidence from elsewhere can apply to Glasgow but also to listen to their very natural anxieties.

And businesses too. They have made their voices clear on the impact of addiction and related anti-social behaviour on the city centre, its vibrancy and the livelihoods it sustains. We need engagement to begin here because whilst the issues of drug misuse supply and discarded needles is not new on our streets, a real discussion on a proposal to turn this around would be.

In the weeks ahead we will consider how to bring this conversation into the wider city. All our political groups support this measure so all Glasgow’s 85 elected members can begin to have that discussions with the citizens they represent. Together we believe we have a plan to introduce a measure to not only curb hundreds of deaths of our fellow citizens, our family members, but a platform to start the process of turning lives around. It is vital that we take as many of our people with us.