SNP minister on having more safe drug consumption rooms before Glasgow 'Thistle' pilot ends

Scotland could have more safe drug consumption rooms before the Glasgow pilot ends, Health Secretary Neil Gray has claimed.

The first safe drug consumption room in the UK, known as the Thistle, opened in Glasgow on January 13. The facility operates between 9am and 9pm, 365 days a year.

Inside The Thistle - the drugs consumption facility in Glasgow. Picture: John Devlin/The Scotsman | John Devlin/The Scotsman

Appearing before Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Mr Gray defended the facility and suggested more consumption rooms could open if there was demand for it.

His answer came in response to a question from Scottish Labour MP Chris Murray, who asked if the Scottish Government hoped to open more such facilities.

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Mr Gray said: “If any other area in Scotland is looking to come forward with their own safer consumption facility, they will need to come forward with those proposals.

“I have already had interest in Mr Murray’s area in Edinburgh, and from other parts of Scotland where there may be proposals to come forward. But that is for those local partnerships to establish and do so in the same way Glasgow did.

“That does not necessitate having to wait for the end of the Glasgow pilot. It could happen before then, but it’s for those local areas to come forward with their own proposals, and for those to be judged on the same merits as the Glasgow pilot was.”

Pushed on if he had a number in mind, the senior Scottish minister again declined to answer.

He said: “The efficacy of the pilot needs to be judged, then that helps inform wider government policy. It’s for local areas to come forward.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray was appearing before the Scottish Affairs Committee

Around 400 to 500 people inject drugs in public places around Glasgow on a regular basis. Scotland is the drug deaths capital of Europe, with 1,172 people reported to have died from drugs in 2023 - a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.

The committee session also saw Mr Gray, the Airdrie and Shotts MSP, repeat requests for drugs policy to be devolved, as well as defend Scotland’s Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain’s decision that it would not be “in the public interest” to prosecute people using such a facility.

Mr Gray said: “What we're talking about here are harm reduction measures that are about taking a public health approach to those who have a substance dependency and who we want to see move in to recovery

“I regret the fact that there has not yet been a review of the Misuse of Drugs Act and wider drug policy at a UK-wider level. I regret the fact that drug policy is not devolved … for us to tackle what is clearly a very grave issue that we are facing here in Scotland.

“We are going to look at every possible option we have, drawing on international evidence, in order to reduce the drug-related harm that we are seeing in Scotland.

“The Lord Advocate has made clear although this is a grey area from a legal perspective, she is clear that the policy intent behind the safer consumption facility means she is comfortable with its existence, to facilitate people who would not have otherwise have not engaged in any form of statutory services, in order to find a path to recovery.”