Scottish Affairs Committee to examine UK's first drugs consumption room in Glasgow

The Scottish Affairs Committee has launched an inquiry examining the pilot Safer Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF) which opened in Glasgow on Monday.

The facility, on Hunter Street, is the UK’s first official consumption room for illegal drugs.

Known as ‘the Thistle,’ the facility will enable people to consume illegal drugs under medical supervision.

By doing so, the facility aims to reduce overdoses and associated public disorder whilst also offering health reduction services to people who do not receive other health and social supports.

The inquiry will focus specifically on the legal and policy challenges faced in setting up and running the facility, its current legal position and the challenges this presents, and the facility’s effectiveness in reducing drug-related deaths in Scotland.

The inquiry will consider what legal changes at the UK level might be necessary to enable the facility to operate sustainably beyond its three-year pilot.

It will also follow up on relevant aspects of the Scottish Affairs Committee’s previous work on this issue in the 2017-19 Parliament.

Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Patricia Ferguson MP, said: “Scotland has the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe, and Glasgow is at the centre of this crisis.

“It’s vital that things change and that both Governments work together to tackle problem drug use and stop people dying.

“In 2019, a predecessor Scottish Affairs Committee recommended that the UK Government should support a pilot drug consumption room like this in Glasgow. Since then, policy and legal developments have made the facility a reality.

“This new inquiry is an important opportunity for us to look closely at how the facility reduces the harm caused by problem drug use and what legal changes might be needed if the facility is to be made permanent.”