UK's first legal drug room in Glasgow

Welcome to Thistle – the UK's first and only drug consumption room.

After nearly a decade of gridlock and debate over drug laws, the center is finally ready to open.

On Monday, the company will welcome its first customers, who will inject illegally purchased heroin or cocaine under medical supervision.

The Thistle is based in Glasgow's East End, which has a large number of people taking drugs in public places.

The project, funded by the Scottish Government, aims to reduce overdoses and drug-related harm and reduce community concern about drug use.

Drug laws are made in Westminster but enforced by the Scottish courts.

The plan was made possible because Scotland's top prosecutor, the Director of Public Prosecutions, announced a policy change which means drug users will not be prosecuted for possessing illegal drugs at the facility.

The UK government said it had no plans to introduce other consumption rooms but would not intervene in the Glasgow project.

Some local residents opposed the plans, saying they believed it would bring more trade to the area, while a drug addiction charity claimed it would “encourage people to harm themselves”.

BBC News Scotland visited the facility.

The Thistle is modeled after more than 100 similar facilities around the world.

It is open from 09:00 to 21:00 and operates 365 days a year.

People arriving at the center with drugs must register with the service center before entering.

Inside there are eight bays where paramedics will supervise injections and respond to overdoses.

The consumption room cannot test the drugs taken but will provide a safe environment for people who use them.

Service manager Lynn Macdonald said staff are still unsure how many injections will be administered each day.

“In other countries, some services of similar size are seeing up to 200 people a day, but that's really hard to predict,” she said.

“Some people might come once a day, some might come twice a day.

“Maybe some people come in 10 times a day, depending on their drug use patterns.”

The service also provides medical consultation rooms, recovery and observation rooms as well as kitchen and lounge areas.

Users also have access to a clothing library and showers.

Thistle's operating costs will reach nearly £7 million over the next three years.

It is located next to a clinic in the city's Hunter Street where 23 long-term drug users are currently receiving heroin medication.

Drugs will not be available at the new facility – users bring their own.

A previous NHS report estimated that “around 400 to 500 people regularly inject drugs in public spaces in Glasgow city centre”.

Dr Saket Priyadarshi is head of the NHS Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service in Greater Glasgow and is the clinical lead for the service.

“We’ve concentrated on a number of long-standing public injection sites,” he said.

“We also know that drug-related injuries and deaths are among the highest in Scotland, and even in the UK, in nearby areas with large numbers of people involved in injecting away from home.

“It makes sense to deliver at this location, and that's the problem.”

Dr Priyadarshi said he hoped the service would improve local problems with drug-related litter and visible public injection.

“We're not saying this will in any way impact drug-related deaths nationally or even in the city more broadly,” he said.

“We’re looking at a very concentrated minority of people.

“Having said that, by setting an example I do hope that other parts of Scotland will consider whether this is relevant to them.”

Consumption rooms are not a new concept.

Such facilities were first trialled in Switzerland in 1986 and have since been rolled out to other European countries, including Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, as well as facilities in Canada and New York City.

Dr Priyadarshi is a member of the think tank which first proposed the establishment of consumption chambers in Scotland back in 2008.

Plans for the facility were first approved in 2016 by Glasgow's Joint Integration Committee – made up of the local NHS and Glasgow City Council, which governs health and social care services.

It comes a year after an HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs in the city was the worst in the UK for three decades.

For the 2016 scheme to work, users would need to be allowed to bring Class A drugs bought from dealers to NHS sites without prosecution.

Although the proposals have the support of the Scottish Government, drug laws remain in Westminster's hands.

Ministry of Interior Will not support this plan and was shelved in 2018.

However, the proceedings were reinstated when Scotland's chief prosecutor, Dorothy Bain KC, said it would be “not in the public interest” to prosecute such a case in 2023.

Health officials must consult with the local community in the nearby community of Carlton before the attorney general signs off.

Over the course of a year, BBC News Scotland attended a number of impromptu meetings between staff at the center and local residents seeking information about the scheme.

Some remain unconvinced, fearing a possible increase in drug dealing and community disorder.

Others complained about a lack of investment in one of the city's poorest areas.

Annemarie Ward is chief executive of the charity Voices for Recovery UK, which helped draft the Scottish Conservative Rights to Recovery Bill, which passed the Scottish Parliament.

She questioned spending priorities and said the facility was a “misnomer for treatment.”

Ms Ward said: “This is a harm reduction intervention rather than a treatment.

“It's definitely not innovative or progressive behavior to see someone harm themselves so violently and catastrophically.”

She said it was a “travesty and devastation” that drug addicts were often denied access to recovery services.

Ms Ward added: “Does it stop people dying? I don't think so. I think it encourages people to continue harming themselves.”

“I would like to see that money put into services that can help people get their lives back.”

Chief Prosecutor Dorothy Bain KC said: “This policy is an extension of the principle of diverted prosecution.

“Through this process, prosecutors can refer cases to local authorities or other identified agencies as a means of addressing the root causes of the crime.

“In diversion cases, our goal is to break the cycle of harm and reduce the impact of crime on the community.”

She said she was pleased the facility in Glasgow could provide a supportive service approach to help some of society's most vulnerable people.

“I know this policy may cause anxiety to some people who live and work near this facility,” she added.

“The scope of this policy is very narrow and does not mean that other offenses will be tolerated.

“Supply offenses are not included and Police Scotland will continue to enforce these and other offenses as always.”

Julie (not her real name), who had been taking drugs for six years, was sleeping rough in the city center when she spoke to BBC Scotland in December.

“The drug situation in Glasgow is now even more difficult and serious,” she said.

“Everyone is doing drugs. You walk down the street and you see all kinds of paraphernalia. You go to the corner and you see people doing drugs, not caring, having the audacity.

“With this consumption room — I think everyone will use it. But it's going to be about trust.”

David Clark also lived on the streets, trying to kick his addiction after relapsing.

He pointed out that there is a mile-long distance between urban shopping areas where some users congregate and consumption rooms.

“If it's run properly, that's a good thing,” he said.

“But when people are buying drugs here (city centre) they don’t want to walk away over there (Hunter Street), do they?

“That's the problem.”

He added: “But if something like this saves lives, I give it a thumbs up.”

Scotland’s drug death crisis has not gone away.

Overdose deaths rose steadily in the 2010s until reaching a record high of 1,339 in 2020.

The numbers have stabilized since then but remain high.

England and Wales saw a record number of overdose deaths in 2023, while Scotland's death rate in the same year was more than twice as high.

In 2021, the Scottish Government announced its “national mission” to tackle drug deaths, providing £250 million in funding over five years.

This has led to widespread promotion of the overdose prevention drug naloxone, a focus on improving addiction treatment standards, and a promise to increase the number of locations in residential recovery facilities.

Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray welcomed the opening of the centre.

He said: “This is absolutely rooted in the heart of the national mission to reduce harm.

“It's about making sure people can access services and support in a stigma-free way. Because it's not just about the safer consumption element.

“It’s also about the holistic and holistic interventions that are part of that.”

The UK government has said it has “no plans to introduce consumption rooms”.

It added: “We will also continue to take preventive public health measures to tackle the biggest killers in our society, including substance abuse, and better support people to live longer, healthier lives.”

A spokesman said the UK government “will not interfere with the independence of the chief prosecutor over the trial of drug consumption rooms in Glasgow”.