The UK's first legal drug consumption room

The UK's first legal drug consumption room opens in Glasgow today, following a decade-long legal battle between the city's council and Westminster.

The initiative "marks a significant, if contested, moment for British drugs policy after years of debate" about the best way to reduce overdose deaths and "take consumption off the streets", said The New York Times.

With Scotland recording the highest drug death rate in Europe, "all eyes are on Glasgow", Allan Casey, the city council's addictions convener told The Guardian, with "a huge amount of pressure to make sure we get it right".

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How does it work?

The Safer Drugs Consumption Facility, to be known more informally as The Thistle, will offer some of the city's most vulnerable addicts a clean and safe environment in which to take their own drugs, under nurse supervision.

Open from 9am to 9pm, 365 days a year, The Thistle has eight open-plan injecting booths, as well as a lounge area, and shower and laundry facilities. Those wanting to use The Thistle do not have to give their full name at the reception desk but will be required to have a brief discussion with a member of staff about which drugs they are taking and how they plan to use them. Users will then be given access to clean syringes, needles and swabs.

Designed in consultation with a group of former addicts, the centre will "steer clear of what would often be found in conventional health services – which plenty of drug users have had traumatising experiences of", said the Big Issue. "A lived-experience team" helped decide things "like the way reception staff will greet people", as well as the choice of furniture and colour schemes (think lots of light wood, greens and turquoise)". Staff will not wear NHS uniforms.

The three-year pilot scheme will cost about £2 million a year to run, and has been funded by the Scottish government.

But aren't drugs illegal?

Drug legislation is reserved to Westminster, and the previous Conservative government repeatedly dismissed calls from Glasgow city council, backed by the Scottish government, for the legal powers to pilot such a scheme. The green light was finally given in 2023 after Scotland's most senior law office confirmed that the centre's users would not be prosecuted under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for simple possession offences committed within the confines of the facility.

Clarifying the ruling ahead of The Thistle's opening, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said "it would not be in the public interest to prosecute people for simple possession offences when they are already in a place where help with their issues can be offered". This statement of prosecution policy "does not extend to people on their way to and from the facility, or anywhere else in Glasgow", said Scottish Legal News.

How will it help drug users?

There are now over 100 drug consumption rooms around the world, including in Europe, Canada, the US and Australia. Supporters of these facilities claim they "cut the risk of overdose and infection, reduce the costs of acute hospital admissions, and put users in touch with healthcare professionals who can offer drug addiction treatment", said The New York Times.

It is part of a "harm-reduction approach to problem drug use", said the Big Issue, which "means treating it as a public-health matter, rather than trying to shame or criminalise people into abstinence". Supervision at The Thistle is "deliberately light touch" said The Guardian, and it's hoped the centre will "engage drug users who have proved hardest to reach", given the "extra support for wider healthcare, housing and benefits also available". Staff "accept its reach will be limited but see it as a starting point", said Channel 4 News.

So is this the future of drugs policy?

The opening of the country's first legal drug consumption facility is a "potentially transformative moment in UK drugs policy", said The Guardian. Indeed, "such is the level of cross-UK interest" that Glasgow city council is working with other British cities to lobby Westminster "to allow further pilot schemes".

Not everyone is behind the initiative, however. Some local residents fear it could bring more drug dealing into the area, while "other critics worry that it will be counterproductive", said the New York Times. The addiction charity Faces & Voices of Recovery UK, for example, warned that there was "nothing kind" about offering "a place to continue destructive behaviours" that keep people "trapped in cycles of chaos, compulsion and despair".