The UK’s first safe drug consumption room will open in Glasgow this month. Known as Thistle, the Hunter Street facility will be open all year round, from 9am to 9pm, from January 15. Inside, people will be able to consume illegal drugs – like heroin and cocaine – under the supervision of clinicians.
Image Credit: Metro [A view of a drugs consumption room, which allows users take heroin under medical supervision, at the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow. The UK's first safe drug consumption room was approved on Wednesday by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board (IJB), which is made up of NHS and council officials. A ?2.3 million consumption room is now planned for Hunter Street in the east end of the city. Picture date: Thursday September 28, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire]
Councillor Allan Casey, convener for addiction services at Glasgow City Council, said: ‘We have been pushing for a safer drug consumption facility for some time. ‘It’s a welcome relief to know we can finally have people in to access the service and support available within the Thistle.
Image Credit: Metro [A view of a drugs consumption room, which allows users take heroin under medical supervision, at the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow. The UK's first safe drug consumption room was approved on Wednesday by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board (IJB), which is made up of NHS and council officials. A ?2.3 million consumption room is now planned for Hunter Street in the east end of the city. Picture date: Thursday September 28, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire]
‘We know from all the other safer drug consumption rooms in operation across the world that they do make a difference.’. The hope is this will reduce overdoses other health complications, along with public drug taking and drug-related litter, in a part of the UK with a higher rate of drug-related than other European countries.
Image Credit: Metro [GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 27: A view of the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre where people a currently helped with addictions on September 27, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. The UK's first official consumption room for the safe taking of illegal drugs has been approved by the Scottish government to take place in Glasgow. Scotland recorded over 1,000 deaths from illegal drugs last year. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)]
Scotland saw a 12% increase in drug misuse deaths in 2023, bringing that year’s total to 1,172. That was the second lowest number since 2017. Thistle has been nearly a decade in the making. Such a space was proposed in 2016 after a spike in HIV infections in Glasgow, where most then 10% of people injecting drugs have HIV.
Image Credit: Metro [GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 06: Drug users prepare cocaine before injecting, inside of a safe consumption van set up by Peter Krykant on November 6,2020 in Glasgow, Scotland. Peter, a recovering heroin addict and former drugs worker, has set up the drug consumption van where addicts can inject safely and take drugs under supervision. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)]
A previous outbreak in Edinburgh, when the virus first appeared in the 1980s, led to the introduction of needle exchanges that reduced transmission by taking contaminated needles out of use. Now experts and policymakers are looking to another harm reduction method – supervised drug taking.
![[A view of a drugs consumption room, which allows users take heroin under medical supervision, at the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow. The UK's first safe drug consumption room was approved on Wednesday by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board (IJB), which is made up of NHS and council officials. A ?2.3 million consumption room is now planned for Hunter Street in the east end of the city. Picture date: Thursday September 28, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_173717320-0702.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[A view of a drugs consumption room, which allows users take heroin under medical supervision, at the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow. The UK's first safe drug consumption room was approved on Wednesday by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board (IJB), which is made up of NHS and council officials. A ?2.3 million consumption room is now planned for Hunter Street in the east end of the city. Picture date: Thursday September 28, 2023. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_173717240-dfa2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 27: A view of the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre where people a currently helped with addictions on September 27, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. The UK's first official consumption room for the safe taking of illegal drugs has been approved by the Scottish government to take place in Glasgow. Scotland recorded over 1,000 deaths from illegal drugs last year. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_173549760-d3be.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 06: Drug users prepare cocaine before injecting, inside of a safe consumption van set up by Peter Krykant on November 6,2020 in Glasgow, Scotland. Peter, a recovering heroin addict and former drugs worker, has set up the drug consumption van where addicts can inject safely and take drugs under supervision. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PRI_171586854-1edf.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
