Welcome to Thistle – the UK’s first and only drug addiction treatment room.
The center is finally set to open after nearly a decade of stalling and wrangling over drug laws.
On Monday, it will welcome its first clients who will come to inject illegally purchased heroin or cocaine under medical supervision.
Thistle is located in the east end of Glasgow, which has a large population of drug users.
Funded by the Scottish Government, it aims to reduce overdose and drug-related harm, as well as make drug use less visible to the community.
Consumers were not prosecuted.
Drug laws are made in Westminster but are enforced by the Scottish courts.
The scheme can only go ahead because Scotland’s senior prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, has announced a policy change which means users will not be prosecuted for possessing illegal drugs while in the facility.
The UK government said it had no plans to introduce other consumption rooms but would not interfere with the Glasgow project.
Some local residents are against the plan, saying they think it will bring more traffic to the area, and an addictions charity claims it will “encourage people to self-harm”. “
BBC Scotland News was given a tour of the facility.
Thistle is based in more than 100 similar facilities worldwide.
It will be open between 09:00 and 21:00 and will operate 365 days a year.
People who come to the center with drugs must register with the service before being allowed entry.
Inside, there are eight booths where nursing staff will monitor injections and respond to overdoses.
The consumption room will not have the ability to test the drugs taken, but will provide a safe environment for those using them.
Service manager Lynn MacDonald said staff are not yet sure how many injections will be given each day.
He said that some similar services in other countries are seeing 200 people a day but it is really hard to predict.
“You’re going to have some people who come in maybe once a day, you’re going to have some people who come in maybe twice a day.
“You might 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 clothes bank and showers.
Thistle’s running costs will reach around £7m 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 prescribed pharmaceutical heroin.
The new facility will not dispense drugs – customers bring their own supplies.
A previous NHS report estimated that “around 400 to 500 people regularly inject drugs in public places in Glasgow city centre”.
Dr Sakit Priyadarshi – head of alcohol and drug recovery services at NHS Greater Glasgow – is the clinical lead for the service.
“We have a concentration of sites that have been public injection sites for a long time,” he said.
“We also know that in the surrounding area, there are high numbers of people who inject away from home and who experience the highest rates of drug-related harm and death in Scotland, if not the UK. .
“It makes sense to deliver to the site, where the problem is.”
Dr Priyadarshi said he hoped the service would improve the drug littering and public injection problems seen in the local area.
“We’re not saying this will, in any way, affect the national drug-related death picture, or even the broader city,” he said.
“We’re focused on a very concentrated small population.
“Having said that, by setting an example, I hope that other parts of Scotland will consider whether it is suitable for them.”
Legal barriers.
The consumption room is not a new concept.
First trialled in Switzerland in 1986, such facilities have spread 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 the think tank that first proposed setting up a consumption room in Scotland in early 2008.
Glasgow’s Joint Integration Board – the body comprising the local NHS and Glasgow City Council which manages health and social care services – approved plans for the facility for the first time in 2016.
It comes after an HIV outbreak among injecting drug users in the city a year ago, the worst in Britain in three decades.
For the 2016 plan to work, consumers must be allowed to bring Class-A drugs – bought from dealers – onto an NHS site without being prosecuted.
Despite the proposals being backed by the Scottish Government, drug laws are reserved for Westminster.
Home Office Will not support the project. And it was saved in 2018.
However, it was revived after Dorothy Bain KC, Lord Advocate for Scotland, said it would “not be in the public interest” to proceed in such cases in 2023.
Community concerns
Health authorities were required to consult the local community in the nearby Calton neighborhood before the Lord Advocate’s final sign-off.
Over the year, BBC Scotland News has attended a number of drop-in meetings between staff at the center and local residents seeking information about the scheme.
Some are not convinced, citing concerns about a possible increase in drug dealing and disorder in the neighborhood.
Others complained of underinvestment in one of the city’s poorest areas.
Annemarie Ward is chief executive of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, which helped get the Scottish Conservatives’ draft Recovery Bill into the Scottish Parliament.
He questioned the spending priorities and said the facility was a “misnomer for treatment.”
Ms Ward said: “This is a harm reduction intervention, not a cure.
“It is in no way innovative or progressive for someone to harm themselves so severely and catastrophically”.
It’s a “mistake and disaster” that addicts often don’t have access to rehabilitation services, she said.
Ms Ward added: “Does it stop people dying? I don’t think it does. I think it encourages people to harm themselves.
“I would like to see the money go into services that can help people get their lives back.”
PA MediaLord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said: “This policy is an extension of the principles of prosecution avoidance.
“It is a process by which the Procurator Fiscal may refer a case to a local authority, or other identified agency, as a means of addressing the root causes of the offence.
“Our aim in turning things around is to break cycles of harm and reduce the impact of crime on communities.”
She said she was pleased the Glasgow facility could provide a way for support services to engage with some of society’s most vulnerable people.
“I understand that this policy may be a concern for some people who live and work near this facility,” she added.
“The policy is very narrow and does not mean that other violations will be tolerated.
“Supply offenses are not included and Police Scotland will enforce these and other offences, as always.”
‘Everybody’s Using’
Julie – not her real name – has been using drugs for six years and was sleeping rough in a city center when she spoke to BBC Scotland in December.
“The drug situation in Glasgow is now very difficult and serious,” he said.
“Everybody’s using. You go down a street, you’ll see stuff. You’ll go on a corner, you’ll see someone taking drugs, don’t care, bold as brass.
“With that consumption room — I think everybody will use it. But it’s going to be about trust.”
David Clarke is also on the streets and trying to get drugs after a relapse.
He pointed out a mile between the city’s shopping district where some customers congregate and the utility rooms.
“If it is run properly, it is a good thing,” he said.
“But when people buy drugs here. [in the city centre]they will not want to walk away from there. [to Hunter Street]Will they?
“That’s the catch.”
He added: “But my fingers are crossed for this kind of stuff if it’s going to save lives.”
Drug-related deaths
The drug death crisis in Scotland is not going away.
The number of fatal overdoses continued to rise in the 2010s until it reached a peak of 1,339 in 2020.
Since then, the numbers have stabilized but remain stubbornly high.
While England and Wales saw record overdose deaths in 2023, the death rate in Scotland more than doubled in the same year.
In 2021, the Scottish Government announced its “national mission” to tackle drug-related deaths, with funding of £250m over five years.
This led to the widespread introduction of the overdose prevention drug naloxone, a focus on improving the quality of addiction treatment, and a commitment to increase placements in residential rehabilitation facilities.
Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray has welcomed the opening of the centre.
He said: “This is right at the heart of the national mission of harm reduction.
“It’s about making sure people can access services and support in a stigma-free way. Because it’s not just about the safe use factor.
“It’s also about the wrap-up and comprehensive interventions that are available as part of that.”
The UK government said it had “no plans to introduce consumption rooms”.
He added: “We will also continue to take public health preventative measures to tackle the biggest killers in our society, including drug misuse, and better support people to live longer, healthier lives. “
A spokesman said the UK government “will not interfere with the independence of the Lord Advocate in relation to the pilot drug use room in Glasgow”.