The UK’s first and only drug consumption room opens

After nearly a decade of deadlock and wrangling over drug laws the centre is finally ready to open.

The clinic welcomed its first clients today who will come in to inject illegally-bought heroin or cocaine under medical supervision.

The Thistle is based in Glasgow’s east end, where there is a high population of users who take drugs in public.

Funded by the Scottish government, its aim is to reduce overdoses and drug-related harm as well as making drug use less visible to the community. Drug laws are set at Westminster but are enforced by the Scottish courts.

This scheme can only go ahead because Scotland’s senior prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, announced a change in policy which meant users would not be prosecuted for possessing illegal drugs while at the facility.

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

Some local residents are against the plan, saying they think it will bring more dealing to the area, and an addictions charity claimed it would “encourage people to harm themselves.”

The Thistle is modelled on more than 100 similar facilities across the world. It will be open between 09:00 and 21:00 and will operate 365 days a year.

People who arrive at the centre with drugs have to be registered with the service before they are permitted entry.

Inside, there are eight booths where nursing staff will supervise injections and respond to overdoses.

The consumption room will not have the ability to test the drugs being taken, but will provide a safe environment for those using them.

Service manager Lynn Macdonald said staff are still unsure how many injections would take place each day.

She said: “Some services similar in size to this in other countries are seeing up to 200 people a day but it’s really difficult to predict. You will have some people who will maybe come in once a day, you’ll have some people who maybe come in twice a day.

You’ll maybe have some people who come in 10 times a day depending on their drug use pattern.”

The service also provides medical consultation rooms, a recovery and observation room and a kitchen and lounge area. Users will also have access to a clothing bank and showers.

The Thistle’s running costs will reach almost £7m over the next three years.

It is situated in the city’s Hunter Street beside a clinic where 23 long-term drug users are currently prescribed pharmaceutical heroin. The new facility will not provide drugs – users bring their own supply.

A previous report by the NHS estimated there were “approximately 400 to 500 people injecting drugs in public places in Glasgow city centre on a regular basis”.

Dr Saket Priyadarshi, head of alcohol and drug recovery services at NHS Greater Glasgow, is the clinical lead for the service.

He said: “We have a concentration of sites that are long-standing public injection sites.

We also know that in the vicinity, there is a concentration of people involved in injecting away from home and who experience some of the highest rates of drug-related harm and fatality in Scotland, if not the United Kingdom.

It makes sense to deliver at this site, which is where the problem is.”

Dr Priyadarshi said he hoped the service would improve issues around drug-related litter and visible public injecting in the local area.

He said: “We are not saying that is going to, in any way, affect the national drug-related death picture, or even the wider city. We are focused on a very concentrated small population.

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

The consumption room concept was first trialled in Switzerland in 1986 with similar facilities since spreading to other European countries including Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, as well as facilities in Canada and New York City.

Dr Priyadarshi was part of a think tank that first proposed establishing a consumption room in Scotland as early as 2008.

Glasgow’s Joint Integration Board – a body comprising the local NHS and Glasgow City Council that administers health and social care services, first approved plans for the facility in 2016.