Inside the UK's first authorized drug consumption room in Glasgow

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

After nearly a decade of standoff and tussle over drug legal guidelines, the middle is lastly able to open.

On Monday it should welcome its first clients who will come to inject illegally bought heroin or cocaine beneath medical supervision.

Thistle is situated within the east finish of Glasgow, the place there are excessive numbers of individuals utilizing medicine in public.

Funded by the Scottish Government, it goals to cut back overdoses and drug-related hurt in addition to make the group seen and scale back drug use.

Drug legal guidelines are set in Westminster however are enforced by the Scottish courts.

The plan can solely go forward as a result of Scotland's senior prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, has introduced a change in coverage which suggests customers is not going to be prosecuted for possessing unlawful medicine whereas within the facility.

The UK authorities mentioned it had no plans to open different consumption rooms however wouldn’t intrude with the Glasgow mission.

Some native residents are towards the plan, saying they suppose it should result in extra dealing within the space, and one habit charity claimed it might “encourage people to harm themselves.”

BBC Scotland News was given a tour of the power.

Thistle relies at over 100 comparable services around the globe.

It can be open between 09:00 and 21:00 and function twelve months a 12 months.

People who arrive on the middle with medicine need to register with the service earlier than being allowed entry.

Inside, there are eight cubicles the place nursing employees will monitor injections and reply to overdoses.

The consumption room is not going to have the flexibility to check the medicine being taken, however will present a secure atmosphere for individuals who use them.

Service supervisor Lynn MacDonald mentioned employees have been nonetheless not sure what number of injections could be administered every day.

“Some services, similar in size to other countries, are seeing 200 people a day, but that's really hard to predict,” he mentioned.

“You'll have some people who maybe come once a day, you'll have some people who maybe come twice a day.

“You'll probably have some people who come in 10 times a day, depending on their drug use patterns.”

The service also offers 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 operating costs will reach approximately £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 provide medications – users will bring their own supplies.

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

Dr Saket Priyadarshi – Head of Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services at NHS Greater Glasgow – is the clinical lead for this service.

“We have a concentration of sites that have been public injection sites for a long time,” he said.

“We also know that the number of people who inject in the surrounding area, away from home, is high and who experience the highest rates of drug-related harm and mortality in Scotland, if not the United Kingdom.

“It makes sense to deliver to this site, that's where the problem lies.”

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

“We're not saying this will in any way impact 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 other parts of Scotland will consider whether it is relevant to them.”

Consumption room isn’t a brand new idea.

First examined in Switzerland in 1986, such services then unfold to different European international locations, together with Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain, in addition to to Canada and New York City.

Dr Priyadarshi was a part of the suppose tank that first proposed establishing a consumption chamber in Scotland in 2008.

Glasgow's Joint Integration Board – a physique comprising the native NHS and Glasgow City Council that manages well being and social care providers – first accepted plans for the power in 2016.

It got here a 12 months after an HIV outbreak among the many metropolis's injecting drug customers, the worst in Britain in three a long time.

To implement the 2016 plan, customers are to be allowed to deliver class-A medicine purchased from sellers to an NHS website with out going through prosecution.

Despite proposals supported by the Scottish Government, drug legal guidelines are reserved to Westminster.

residence workplace is not going to assist the plan And it was discontinued in 2018.

However, it was revived when Dorothy Bain Casey, Lord Advocate of Scotland, mentioned it might be “not in the public interest” to deliver proceedings in such instances in 2023.

Health officers have been required to seek the advice of the area people within the close by Calton neighborhood earlier than last log off by the Lord Advocate.

Over the course of a 12 months, BBC Scotland News has attended quite a lot of drop-in conferences between middle employees and native residents for details about the scheme.

Some stay in disagreement, citing considerations over a possible improve in drug dealing and dysfunction within the neighborhood.

Others complained about low funding in one of many metropolis's poorest neighborhoods.

Annemarie Ward is the chief government of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, which helped draft the Scottish Conservatives' Right to Recovery Bill by the Scottish Parliament.

He questioned spending priorities and mentioned the power was a “misnomer of treatment”.

Ms Ward mentioned: “This is a harm reduction intervention, not a treatment.

“Seeing someone self-harm so drastically and in such a devastating way is not innovative or progressive in any way.”

He said it is a “travesty and catastrophe” that victims of addiction often do not get access to recovery services.

Ms Ward said: “Does it stop people dying? I don't think it does. I think it encourages people to harm themselves.

“I want this money to be spent on services that can help people get their lives back.”

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain Casey said: “This policy is an extension of the principles of diverting attention from the prosecution.

“This is a process by which a prosecutor may refer a case to a local authority, or other identified agency, as a means of addressing the underlying causes of financial crime.

“Our aim in turning around cases is to break the cycle of harm and reduce the impact of crime on communities.”

He said he was satisfied that the Glasgow facility could provide a way for support services to connect with some of the most vulnerable people in society.

“I perceive this coverage could also be a supply of concern for some individuals who stay and work close to the power,” she said.

“The policy is very narrow and does not mean that other indignities will be tolerated.

“Supply offenses are not included and Police Scotland will enforce these and other offences, as they always do.”

Julie – not her real name – has been using drugs for six years and was sleeping rough in the city center when she spoke to BBC Scotland in December.

“The drug situation in Glasgow is now very difficult and serious,” he said.

“Everyone is utilizing. You stroll down a road, you'll see stuff. You go to a nook, you'll see any individual taking medicine, not caring, brave as brass.

“With this consumption room – I think everyone will use it. But it will be about trust.”

David Clarke can be on the streets attempting to kick his drug habit.

He pointed to a mile distance between town's purchasing district the place few customers congregate and the consumption chamber.

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

“But when people buy drugs here [in the city centre]they don't want to go away [to Hunter Street]will they?

“That's the catch.”

He additional mentioned, “But if it should save lives then I’m prepared for such issues.”

The crisis of drug deaths in Scotland is not going away.

The number of fatal overdoses rose steadily in the 2010s and reached a record high of 1,339 in 2020.

Since then, the numbers have stabilized but remain consistently high.

While England and Wales saw a record number of overdose deaths in 2023, the death rate in Scotland more than doubled in the same year.

In 2021, the Scottish Government announced its “nationwide mission” to tackle drug-related deaths with £250m of funding over five years.

This led to widespread dissemination of the overdose prevention drug naloxone, a focus on improving addiction treatment standards, and the promise of increasing space in residential rehabilitation facilities.

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

He mentioned: “This lies squarely at the heart of the national mission to reduce harm.

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

“It's also about the cover and the holistic interventions that are available as part of it.”

The UK government said it had “no plans to introduce consumption chambers”.

It added: “We will proceed to take preventative public well being measures to sort out the most important killers in our society, together with drug abuse, and higher assist individuals to stay longer, more healthy lives.”

A spokesperson said that the UK Government “is not going to intrude with the independence of the Lord Advocate in relation to the pilot drug consumption chamber in Glasgow”.