Glasgow, August 21, 2024, The Europe Today: The UK’s first official safer drugs consumption facility, set to accommodate up to 30 users at a time, will open its doors on 21 October in Glasgow. Located on Hunter Street in the city’s east end, the Safer Drugs Consumption Facility will provide a supervised environment where individuals can consume illegal drugs, including heroin and cocaine, under the watchful eye of clinical staff. The facility will operate daily from 09:00 to 21:00.
The announcement comes in the wake of alarming new statistics from the National Records of Scotland, which revealed a sharp rise in drug-related deaths. In 2023, 1,172 individuals lost their lives due to drug misuse, marking a 12% increase from the previous year.
Allan Casey, Glasgow City Council’s convener for homelessness and addiction services, emphasized the urgency of the situation, describing it as a “public health emergency” requiring “radical action.” He stated that the new facility is a crucial step toward reducing both fatal and non-fatal overdoses by providing a safe, clean space for drug consumption under medical supervision.
“Glasgow has well-established alcohol and drug recovery services that effectively work with the city’s high number of problem drug users,” Casey remarked. “However, people with problematic alcohol and drug use experience significant challenges, putting their health and well-being at considerable risk.”
Casey underscored the importance of involvement in treatment programs, noting that such engagement substantially improves the chances of individuals receiving the necessary support mechanisms to begin their recovery. “The range of interventions and services we have in the city are all designed to help those most at risk and address the main harms we are seeing among the most vulnerable drug users,” he added.
The facility features booths for up to eight people to safely inject drugs. However, plans for a separate area where individuals could smoke illegal substances were scrapped due to legal and technical challenges related to Scotland’s anti-smoking legislation.
The lord advocate confirmed last year that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of drug consumption rooms for simple possession offences. The facility is part of a broader initiative by the Scottish government to address the escalating drug death crisis, which has claimed more lives per capita than any other country in Europe. The government has committed up to £2.3 million annually to fund the pilot program.
