UK to open its first secure drug consumption room amid hovering deaths

The UK’s first official facility for consuming unlawful medication opens in Glasgow inside a month, a transfer that specialists and campaigners hope will carry main modifications to drug coverage.

The pioneering “safer drug consumption facility”, named the Thistle, was as a consequence of open on Hunter Avenue, within the metropolis’s east finish, earlier this 12 months however was delayed by constructing checks.

It has been made doable after Scotland’s lord advocate stated it will not be within the public curiosity to prosecute anybody utilizing it.

Plans for a facility in Glasgow have been first proposed a decade in the past in response to an HIV outbreak amongst folks injecting medication, however have been repeatedly blocked by the Dwelling Workplace below the Conservatives, who stated such a service would contravene the Misuse of Medication Act 1971.

However Glasgow Labour and Coopera­tive MSP Paul Sweeney, who has volunteered with a secure consumption van within the metropolis designed to check the authorized framework, informed the Observer he had had encouraging conversations with the UK crime and policing minister, Diana Johnson. He stated she is “open-minded and supportive, and involved in trying on the proof from Glasgow to tell the Dwelling Workplace strategy”.

A authorities spokesperson stated: “Each dying from drug misuse is a tragedy for many who have misplaced their lives, their households and for the broader group. Whereas we now have no plans to alter UK drug legal guidelines, by our mission-driven authorities, we are going to take preventative public well being measures to sort out the largest killers in society – together with drug misuse – and help folks to dwell longer, more healthy lives.”

Niamh Eastwood, the chief director of medicine charity Launch UK, stated it was “shameful these amenities will not be being opened throughout the UK”. “The UK authorities should act to permit the institution of drug consumption rooms throughout the UK, Within the meantime, native areas can reply to this disaster by in search of police signoff to permit for the operation of those websites.” she added.

The Thistle will permit folks to inject unlawful medication purchased elsewhere in a hygienic, supervised setting the place skilled professionals can reply to harm and overdose, in addition to providing wraparound care and signposting to different companies. It can open one year a 12 months, from 9am to 9pm and is located near plenty of identified public injecting websites.

There are greater than 100 secure consumption amenities the world over and none has ever recorded a dying.

“The logic is de facto easy – public injecting is harmful as a result of it’s extraordinarily unhygienic and may result in an infection and harm, and in some instances dying,” stated Andrew McAuley, public well being professor at Glasgow Caledonian College and a NHS marketing consultant in Glasgow. Recognized injection websites in Glasgow metropolis centre embody alleyways, automobile parks and bin sheds, which are sometimes darkish, remoted and soiled, he stated.

“There’s additionally the environmental hazard of discarded drug-related litter, like needles and syringes, in locations the place persons are working and dwelling,” McAuley stated. “Having a room successfully strikes these hazards from the streets right into a managed, clear and secure setting for everyone.”

The Thistle opens amid what has been referred to as a drug deaths emergency in Scotland, with Glasgow named Europe’s drug deaths capital. Figures present 1,172 folks died in 2023, virtually 1 / 4 of them in Glasgow.

However these concerned emphasise the Thistle was designed to fulfill the wants of a particular group – folks, a lot of them homeless, publicly injecting within the metropolis centre – and different interventions are wanted to carry drug dying figures down.

“This service will hopefully be very efficient … however it’s not a silver bullet,” stated Saket Priyadarshi, affiliate medical director for drug and alcohol restoration companies in NHS Larger Glasgow and Clyde. “We’re not counting on one intervention however a complete package deal of remedy and care.”

This contains disaster outreach companies, residential rehabilitation and a nationwide programme to distribute naloxone, used to reverse the consequences of opioid overdose, he stated.

Different UK cities have expressed curiosity within the Thistle, Priyadarshi added.

“The UK for some time had a unbelievable popularity round hurt discount and drug remedy, however undoubtedly lately we’ve lagged behind.

“It’s very thrilling to be opening the UK’s first drug consumption facility, however it’s tempered by the realisation we’re most likely considerably late in contrast with different locations. It’s a disgrace it has taken us so lengthy to get right here,” he stated.