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Professor John Robertson OBA

In little more than another Conservative Party release, the Herald has a report today from Annie Wells (Con) that Glasgow City Council has spent £5 000 on installing two public sharp bins for used injection needles.

I’m sure Wells will know that these bins must be safe and that an ordinary wheelie bin is not on.

Did the wee researcher for Wells check the going rate for such things?

Here it is:

Public sharps bins, including installation and safety features, typically range from $3,500 (£2 600) to $10,000 (£7 400) per bin:

^{https://www.medisupplies.co.uk/Hygiene-Infection-Control/Bins-and-Waste-Control/Sharps-Disposal-Bins}

^{https://www.phs.co.uk/resources/sharps-container-disposal-regulations/}

So, the Glasgow bins (£2 500 each) come just below the bottom end of the cost range, a bargain.

Also, Wells uses the space for a dishonest rant about the ‘SNP safe injection centre‘. Here are the facts she will not face:

Shock as some locals tell CNN they see fewer needles and drug paraphernalia on ground around ‘controversial’ SNP safe drug injection centre in Glasgow which has now saved lives after 2 500 supervised injections in only 6 months

From US-based international news agency CNN on 12 July 2025:

“We’ve had almost 2,500 injections inside the facility,” Dr. Saket Priyadarshi, the clinical lead of the Thistle, told a CNN team who visited the facility in early June. “That’s 2,500 less injections in the community, in parks, alleyways, car parks.”

The Scottish government told CNN that the service has already delivered results in terms of public health.

“Through the ability of staff to respond quickly in the event of an overdose, the Thistle service has already saved lives,” Scottish health secretary Neil Gray said. The service, he said, is “helping to protect people against blood-borne viruses and taking used needles off the street.”

The idea itself is not new.

The world’s first safer drug consumption room opened in Switzerland in 1986 -– a clinical counterpoint to street-level chaos. Since then, the model has spread across Europe, from Portugal and the Netherlands to Germany, Denmark and Spain, and beyond to Canada and New York City.

Still, resistance remains. CNN spoke to several people in the area who were concerned about the facility’s opening and said it had encouraged more drug users to come to the area in the six months since opening.

Others, however, told CNN that they had noticed there were fewer needles and less discarded drug paraphernalia on the ground since the clinic opened.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/11/uk/glasgow-uk-first-supervised-drug-consumption-facility-gbr-cmd&source=gmail&ust=1752386722893000&usg=AOvVaw2ghQXPfLVEPt7vXCN-UeJ9

Regular critic, herself in recovery, Annemarie Ward, does get several paragraphs but what’s different here, to most Scottish media coverage, is the reference to Europe-wide research in favour of these facilities, an expert medic and the SNP health secretary being able to provide the numbers and no space for the likes of Jackie Baillie to muddy the waters.

Most striking is that CNN have found some locals saying there are fewer needles lying around. You have to wonder how they did that when BBC Scotland, STV, the Herald, the Scotsman and the Daily Record can only ever find folk saying the opposite. Does this mean that the CNN journalists are better or worse at their jobs than their Scottish equivalents?