I start by wishing the minister a speedy recovery.

I open on a note of consensus with the minister: every life that is lost as a result of drugs is a terrible tragedy, and my thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones. In truth, far too many lives have been lost—since the Scottish Government declared the drugs crisis “a public health emergency” in 2019, more than 4,000 drug-related deaths have been recorded. The figures appear to be still rising, as 600 suspected drug deaths were recorded in the first six months of 2023, which is 7 per cent up on the same period last year.

I very much welcome the Lord Advocate’s announcement that there will be a presumption against prosecution of people who use safe consumption rooms, which removes the obstacle to providing such a facility on a pilot basis in Glasgow. It will be important to have an early shared understanding of how the facility will operate and what the evaluation framework looks like so that we can measure success and learn for the future. It would also be helpful to clarify what protections there will be for staff, should something go wrong. Is their liability limited as well? I hope that the minister will provide further information as the thinking develops.

Turning to the SNP motion, I genuinely regret that we are again debating constitutional issues and seeking to divide rather than to act. Safe consumption rooms were proposed some six to seven years ago. The law has not changed in that time, but the Lord Advocate has acted in a proportionate—and, in my view, sensible—way to enable a pilot to take place. Why was that not done six to seven years ago?

In September 2021, the Lord Advocate confirmed that there was a legal route to pursuing safe consumption rooms. That was 24 months ago. Why has nothing happened until now? A lot of people feel very let down; they are angry about the lack of action, and about the use of constitutional wrangling as an excuse. All this time, thousands more people have died because of drugs.

In 2021, Nicola Sturgeon apologised for having taken her “eye off the ball”, having declared a public health emergency two years earlier, but I fear that the current Government has, sadly, learned nothing.