Credit: Peter Krykant

Mr Krykant made headlines around the world when he refitted a van – and later an old ambulance – into a mobile “overdose prevention service” which he deployed on the streets of Glasgow without any kind of official permission.

The service he launched at the end of August 2020 to coincide with International Overdose Awareness Day, having raised funds through online crowdfunding, ran for around a year and supervised nearly 1,000 injections.

It was the first facility of its kind anywhere in the UK and, despite Police Scotland saying it was illegal to operate under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, Mr Krykant was never prosecuted in connection with the service.

His initiative was widely credited by drugs policy advocates with helping to break the impasse around the opening of official sites, long supported by the Scottish government and a number of local authorities but opposed by the Home Office.

In January this year, a pilot facility known as The Thistle opened on Glasgow’s Hunter Street after the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, said it would not be in the public interest to prosecute people in possession of illegal drugs at the facility.

Mr Krykant welcomed its opening, while warning that it would not be enough in itself to tackle Scotland’s drug deaths emergency. He thought it was necessary to provide more access to alternatives to street drugs.

In his advocacy work, he drew on his personal experiences of drug use and homelessness, starting in his early teenage years. He spoke openly of how the stress of running the mobile service in Glasgow caused him to relapse.

Tributes were paid from across the political spectrum yesterday when Police Scotland confirmed that Mr Krykant had been found dead on Monday evening.

He was father to two boys, aged 14 and 10.