The Thistle is a brand new medication consumption clinic within the east finish of Glasgow, which goals to cut back drug-related deaths within the metropolis. Will probably be open one year a yr.
In 2023, 1,172 Scots died from drug misuse – 1 / 4 of these in Glasgow, which has been named Europe’s medication loss of life capital.
Libby Brooks, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, speaks to workers on the Thistle concerning the providers they can provide, and why they imagine the service is significant in saving lives.
She says: “The inhabitants that the Thistle is coping with, they’re just like the exemplar of laborious to achieve, proper? They’re individuals who have had, all through their lives, actually tough experiences with standard well being providers, with felony justice, and so the Thistle is making an attempt to attach with them in a really totally different means.
“They’re now seeing people who maybe haven’t been to a medical appointment, haven’t seen anybody official for 2, three years, and the Thistle is the primary time that they’ve truly felt in a position to make an method for assist, for remedy.”
Libby tells Michael Safi why a political stalemate between the Scottish authorities and Westminster meant it took a decade for Glasgow metropolis council to open the service, and the gradual shift in the direction of a hurt discount method within the UK.
Additionally, Councillor Allan Casey takes Libby across the neighbourhood to see public injection websites, and explains why they’re so harmful for drug customers.
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