Swinney: Consumption room should help reduce ‘entirely unacceptable’ drug deaths
The First Minister has visited the UK’s first facility where drug users can inject in a clean and safe environment.
John Swinney has said he hopes the UK’s first safer drugs consumption room will help reduce the “entirely unacceptable” level of drug deaths in Scotland.
The First Minister was speaking as he toured the new facility in Glasgow with his Health Secretary Neil Gray – who said the centre could be replicated not just in Scotland but across the UK if it proves to be a success.
They were shown round the Thistle Centre in Glasgow’s east end on Friday, which will open its doors to drug users on Monday.
The centre will be supported with £2 million of Scottish Government cash each year, and Mr Swinney said: “The safer drugs consumption facility will enable people who were always going to take drugs to be able to do so in a safer, clinical environment, but also have access to support and advice and counselling to help them to choose a different pathway in life.”
Scotland continues to have the worst rate of drug deaths in Europe, with the latest figures showing 1,172 people died from drug misuse in 2023 – a rise of 12% on the previous year.
With Glasgow one of the worst affected areas, groups in the city have campaigned for years for a safe consumption facility to be established.
Mr Swinney praised their “tenacious work” to “make sure that we have got every intervention available to us” as the Scottish Government pursues a national mission to tackle drug deaths.
The centre was finally established after Scotland’s top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, made clear prosecuting users of such a facility for possession of drugs would not be in the public interest.
The First Minister stressed there are a range of “interventions that are being made to ensure that we are doing everything we possible can do to address the entirely unacceptable level of drugs deaths that we have in Scotland today”.
Speaking about the new centre, he added: “I hope it will help us to reduce drugs deaths in Scotland and to help people to find a different route in their lives.
“We will evaluate the effectiveness of this particular intervention to determine what progress is achieved as a consequence of it, what impact it has had, and to learn the lessons from it.”
However he stressed the “first of its kind” centre will not be a “silver bullet” and should instead complement other action being taken by ministers to tackle the problem.
Meanwhile Mr Gray said if the pilot centre is successful, “I expect not just to see other facilities in Scotland, but I would expect to see them elsewhere in the UK as well”.
He added: “I hope that this will be another tool in our box in reducing the harm and reducing the level of drug-related deaths that we see in Scotland, and that the pilot will be successful.
“Critically I want this to be a facility that is well used. I want there to be a confidence in the community about coming here.
“I think the warm welcome that people are given, the dignity and the compassion that is at the heart of the service here, I hope will mean that this is a well used service that can help give people another route, another road into recovery.”
He had earlier insisted that “worldwide evidence demonstrates that drug consumption facilities can help save and improve lives”.
Mr Gray also thanked all those involved in “getting this life-saving service up and running for their hard work”.
While Scottish Labour backed the pilot, it warned more needs to be done to tackle drugs deaths in Scotland – saying that since former first minister Nicola Sturgeon declared the situation to be a public health emergency in September 2019 there have been 4,892 drug-related deaths and a further 1,152 suspected drugs deaths, totalling 6,044 overall.
Health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “While we welcome any attempt to reduce the number of drugs deaths in Glasgow, it’s clear that this pilot is a drop in the ocean when it comes to tackling a national public health emergency.
“Each of those 6,000 deaths since 2019 represents an individual tragedy and a family ripped apart on the SNP’s watch.
“The SNP must provide the support charities, local authorities and health workers need to provide a clear, accessible pathway out of addiction for those who are in the grip of substance abuse.
“A crisis on this scale requires a response of the same proportions — it’s up to the SNP to deliver it.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton urged SNP ministers to roll out a “nationwide network of safe consumption rooms”.
He said: “When almost 100 Scots are dying every month from drugs – a death rate far worse than anywhere else in Europe – the priority must be saving lives.
“These centres are proven to keep people safe and support them into recovery. That is why this pilot should herald the first of many more consumption facilities across the country.
“If we are to end the untold suffering caused by the drug deaths crisis, help cannot be limited to Glasgow.
“My party want to see the Scottish Government rolling out a nationwide network of safe consumption rooms, new drug-checking facilities and giving people who are misusing drugs treatment instead of prison.”
