Glasgow drugs facility 'keen' to add inhalation room

The Thistle opened in January this year to let drug addicts inject safely

An inhalation room could be added to Glasgow's new safe drug consumption facility.

The Scottish government says it will work with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership to "explore" ways for the new room to work, after health experts involved with the Thistle said they were "keen" on the idea.

But MPs were told smoking laws in Scotland and drugs laws set in Westminster would need to be changed before pipes could be supplied to users for substances like crack cocaine.

The facility - where drug users can take illegal drugs in a safe environment under medical supervision - opened in January this year, and is the first in the UK.

Dr Saket Priyadarshi believes a wider network of consumption rooms could make a difference

Figures published this week showed 143 individuals have used the facility 1,067 times since it opened, numbers which are higher than expected.

Dr Saket Priyadarshi, associate medical director of Glasgow alcohol and drug recovery services, told the Scottish Affairs Committee inhalation was a "safer and less harmful way of consuming drugs" compared to injecting.

He said staff would be "very keen" to develop a room to allow users to inhale at the Hunter Street facility.

When asked how the Thistle would reduce Scotland's drug deaths Dr Priyadarshi explained it would only have a "small impact" on overall numbers, but a wider network of rooms in the city could make more of a difference.

He said: "I am very confident that were a number of these facilities to exist, targeted at populations that have the highest rates of harm and drug-related deaths then you would see a different picture in Glasgow".

A Scottish government spokesperson told BBC Scotland News that it would follow an "evidence-based approach" in deciding whether to expand the facility.

They said: "Research and evaluation from similar facilities around the world has found evidence that they can help save and improve lives, reduce harms associated with drug use and levels of public drug consumption and publicly discarded drug-related litter.

"We always pursue an evidence-based approach to harm reduction and we recognise that trends around substance use change and a facility such as this should be able to adapt to address the needs of those who seek to use it.

"Scottish government officials will work with colleagues from Glasgow HSCP to explore how a possible inhalation room could be added to the existing facility in the future."

A proposal for a room to smoke illegal substances was in the original plans but later removed.

BBC Scotland News understands the Home Office would not interfere with the independence of the Lord Advocate regarding the running of the consumption room.

Different drug policies

A UK government spokesperson said it had "no plans" to decriminalise drug possession or to introduce drug consumption rooms or to devolve drug legislation but it would "continue to work with the Scottish government to tackle the threat from drugs."

The facility was finally approved in the autumn of 2023 after years of wrangling between the UK and Scottish governments.

The SNP, Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats had all supported the plan, with the SNP saying the country "needed to do something different" to try and improve drug death statistics.

However, the Misuse of Drugs Act is reserved to Westminster, with the Conservative government at the time arguing a "tough approach" was needed.

The pilot scheme aims to tackle Scotland's drugs deaths crisis, which cause more deaths per head than anywhere else in Europe.