Thistle (drug consumption facility)
The Thistle is a drug consumption site in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the first and only legal drug consumption facility in Scotland or the United Kingdom.[1]
Background
[edit]Drug related deaths started to rise during the 1980s.
In 2002 the Home Affairs Select Committee recommended that "safe injecting houses" should be piloted.[2]
In 2008, the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Conservatives reached a deal to pass that year's Scottish budget, where the drugs strategy would be rewritten to potentially put more stress on promoting abstinence and reduce the use of methadone.[3]
From 2015 onwards the mortality rate of drug misuse deaths in Scotland has increased rapidly, prompting calls of a 'national emergency' within the country over the crisis.[4][5][6][7]
In 2019, the Enhanced Drug Treatment Service opened in Glasgow, and offered pharmaceutical-grade heroin.[8] This was the first such facility in Scotland and the second in the United Kingdom.[9]
Peter Krykant set up a safe consumption room van during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] He oversaw nearly 900 injections by drug users in the local area within Glasgow.[10] Krykant was charged for allegedly obstructing police who sought to search his van.[10] Charges were later dropped.[10]
In 2022, Labour MSP Paul Sweeney lodged the Drugs Death Prevention (Scotland) Bill, but it failed to move past the proposal stage and Conservative MSP Douglas Ross lodged the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill.[2][11]
In 2023, Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack announced that the United Kingdom government would let the facility to open.[2]
Establishment
[edit]The facility was approved by Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC as a pilot project.[12][13]
The facility is intended to reduce the number of drug deaths and to reduce the spread of HIV.[13]
Reception
[edit]Recovery campaigner Annemarie Ward, of Favor UK, criticised the facility, saying it "tacitly endorses the use of hard drugs" and described it as "an admission, justification and poor defence of a failed system that doesn’t know how to help people get clean and recover".[2]
Tory MSP Annie Wells said the Thistle would not be a silver bullet and urged the Scottish Government to support the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Clements, Chris (10 January 2025). "Inside the UK's first legal drug consumption room". BBC News. Archived from the original on 10 February 2025. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ a b c d e Villegas, Sofia (13 January 2025). "In context: Glasgow's safer drug consumption room". Holyrood Magazine. Archived from the original on 13 January 2025. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ "MSPs agree on drugs policy revamp". BBC News. 5 February 2008. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- ^ "Drugs deaths in Scotland soar to record level". The Guardian. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
- ^ Smith, Peter (15 December 2020). "Scotland's drug crisis is about to get even worse". ITV News. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
- ^ Turner, Niklaus Nuspliger, Glasgow; Natalie Wenger; Mary. "Glasgow is center of Scotland's drug epidemic". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 13 October 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Scotland's drug death crisis in six charts". BBC News. 15 December 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
- ^ Brooks, Libby (27 November 2019). "Pioneering Glasgow clinic offers addicts pharmaceutical grade heroin". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ "Scotland's first heroin treatment clinic for addicts to open". BBC News. 26 November 2019. Archived from the original on 6 March 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ a b c d Koram, Kojo (15 January 2025). "At last, Britain has a legal drug consumption room – thanks to one man's civil disobedience". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 January 2025. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ "Drug deaths: Right to Recovery Bill lodged at Holyrood". BBC News. 30 May 2022. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ Smillie, Liam (13 January 2025) [2023-09-29]. "Safer Drug Consumption Facility opening in Glasgow explained: Everything you need to know about the site where substance users can safely and legally inject drugs like heroin". Glasgow World. Archived from the original on 17 January 2025. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
- ^ a b Mitchell, Jenness (13 January 2025). "UK's first drug consumption room officially opens in Glasgow". Sky News. Archived from the original on 13 January 2025. Retrieved 30 May 2025.