Opposition dreams of life near the Thistle safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow
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In the National yesterday:
I’m not sure about the strategy of mentioning it again but let’s just take it on. Haven’t the opposition repeatedly suggested that his argument ignores the feelings of locals and the damage the Thistle safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow has done to life in the surrounding area?
They have but as always it was unreliable.
Here are the facts:
In June 2025, I wrote:
A source with a flat in a block 10-15 minutes from the the United Kingdom’s first Safer Drug Consumption Facility, The Thistle, in Glasgow, has a very different story to tell from that gathered by BBC Scotland, based on one group of residents, suggesting a counter-intuitive increase in drug taking and anti-social behaviour near the facility.
Multiple research studies across Europe have clearly demonstrated significant reductions in drug deaths and crime around more than 300 such facilities, over the last 7 years: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-01/180320atisn12038doc2_0.pdf
You have to wonder just how BBC Scotland managed to find evidence contrary to these multiple research reports. Makes you wonder if they have a political agenda and complete disregard for the truth.
In July 2025, from US-based international news agency CNN:
“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.”
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Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421The 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.
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?
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