Being a drug addict has never been sunshine and roses, especially not on the cold, rainy streets of Glasgow. At least now there may be a glimmer of hope. From today, a ‘Safer Drug Consumption Facility’ called ‘The Thistle’ will open in the city that has been labelled Europe’s drugs death capital. Drug addicts ‘under the supervision of trained health and social care professionals’ will be able to shoot up with clean, sterilised syringes. At no point will Old Bill make an unwelcome appearance, dangling a pair of handcuffs. The caveats are that you must be over 18, sharing your drugs is not allowed, and the usual rules about indoor smoking apply. Has Scotland gone mad? The truth is that the facility in Glasgow’s East End may save lives.
At no point will Old Bill make an unwelcome appearance, dangling a pair of handcuffs
Britain is in the throes of an ever-deadlier drug crisis. Cocaine casualties are at an all-time peak, with ten times more deaths blamed on the drug than in the early 2010s. Meanwhile, heroin, laced with powerful chemicals known as nitazenes – produced in Chinese factories then smuggled to the UK in cans of dog food – is causing even seasoned junkies to drop dead. This alarming trend is set to continue as drug syndicates struggle to fill the void left by Afghan heroin. Scotland especially suffers the worst rate of drug deaths in Europe; this is particularly concentrated in the most impoverished corners of Glasgow where vicious gangsters wage street battles with guns and machetes over the profits from this sordid industry.
The Thistle is certainly a step above the urine-drenched alleyways where Peter McLeod (née Krykant) often found his friends. Formerly homeless and substance-dependent himself, in 2020 he decided to take matters into his own hands. Peter began driving around Glasgow in a white van with a can of the overdose-reversing antidote naloxone at hand as a kind of mobile version of the Thistle. The idea was to provide a safe space for narcotic users; one of the riskiest things, after all, is to imbibe alone, where no-one can help you.
“People of my generation, who started using drugs in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, we often get referred to as the Trainspotting generation,” he told me.
“I quickly saw how broken our system was. In Scotland, our fatalities are (far) higher than the European average, and our treatment systems are completely broken. I wasn’t just going to watch the government step back and say this can’t be done.”
Although what he was doing was wholly unsanctioned, Peter won support from police and politicians, including then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Finally, in 2023, the Scottish government issued a proposal recommending, among other things, the provision of safe consumption rooms. That year, the Thistle was given the green light after the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, Scotland’s chief legal officer, ruled it wouldn’t be in the public interest to prosecute users of such a facility.
There’s been understandable concerns from abstinence and recovery groups that the Thistle will only encourage addicts’ compulsive behaviour. But this idea isn’t as wacky as it sounds; it’s already been tried and tested in America, Australia and Portugal, among other countries.
In 2021, New York’s first supervised consumption program, OnPoint, opened its doors. While more than 400,000 Americans have died from overdoses since, none of those deaths have been at OnPoint. There is no evidence either to suggest that troublesome behaviour in the area around the facility has become more common. OnPoint may even have taken the weight off police’s shoulders, since many of OnPoint’s clients are homeless, and would probably be high in public if the facility wasn’t open. A recent study in France suggested that access to consumption sites may help cut visits to hospitals and reduce the number of overdoses. At the same time, these centres provide an opportunity to connect these alienated individuals to social and psychiatric services and medical check-ups.
The UK government has said that it will not intervene in the drug consumption room pilot in Scotland. But will Starmer’s government go further and actually pay attention to the success or failure of this experiment?
“Scotland will be an important pilot to highlight the effectiveness of safe consumption rooms in our national context,” said André Gomes, communications head at the drug charity Release. “However, too much is resting on its immediate success; it will be heavily scrutinised by those that want it to fail. A high operating bill, the need to provide immediate success, dealing with drug use in a very difficult socioeconomic environment…any issues will be used to condemn the initiative.”
There is no doubt that there will soon be calls to shut down the Thistle. But Scotland’s politicians must hold their nerve –and Starmer’s government should consider copying their example.
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