UK to open its first safe drug consumption room amid soaring deaths
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The Thistle in Glasgow aims to save lives by providing a supervised environment in ‘Europe’s drug deaths capital’. The UK’s first official facility for consuming illegal drugs opens in Glasgow within a month, a move that experts and campaigners hope will bring major changes to drug policy.
The pioneering “safer drug consumption facility”, named the Thistle, was due to open on Hunter Street, in the city’s east end, earlier this year but was delayed by building tests. It has been made possible after Scotland’s lord advocate said it would not be in the public interest to prosecute anyone using it.
Plans for a facility in Glasgow were first proposed a decade ago in response to an HIV outbreak among people injecting drugs, but were repeatedly blocked by the Home Office under the Conservatives, who said such a service would contravene the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
But Glasgow Labour and Cooperative MSP Paul Sweeney, who has volunteered with a safe consumption van in the city designed to test the legal framework, told the Observer he had had encouraging conversations with the UK crime and policing minister, Diana Johnson. He said she is “open-minded and supportive, and interested in looking at the evidence from Glasgow to inform the Home Office approach”.
A government spokesperson said: “Every death from drug misuse is a tragedy for those who have lost their lives, their families and for the wider community. While we have no plans to change UK drug laws, through our mission-driven government, we will take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers in society – including drug misuse – and support people to live longer, healthier lives.”.
