Scotland Top In Europe For Drug Deaths Starts Safer Drug Consumption Pilot

10th January 2025

Scotland's First Minister has welcomed the opening of the UK's first safer drugs consumption facility in Glasgow.

The First Minister and Health Secretary Neil Gray received a tour of the Thistle Centre, ahead of it supporting its first service users on Monday 13 January. The facility will provide a supervised healthcare setting where people can inject drugs in the presence of trained health and social care professionals in a clean, hygienic environment.

The facility is backed by £2 million a year from the Scottish Government.

The centre aims to reduce the harms associated with injecting drugs, including the risk of blood-borne viruses such as HIV, support people to get help to improve their lives and reduce the negative impact of outdoors injecting on those using substances, local residents, communities and businesses.

Speaking during the visit, First Minister John Swinney said, "The Thistle Centre in Glasgow is the first facility of its kind in the UK and it is backed by £2 million a year from the Scottish Government.

"Every death related to drug misuse is one too many, and drug deaths in Scotland remain far too high.

"There has been lot of encouraging progress since we launched our National Mission, and while this facility is not a silver bullet, it is another significant step forward and will complement other efforts to reduce harms and deaths.

"Scotland's public health and human rights-based approach to tackling drug misuse means we're focused on ensuring our healthcare services are not only listening to people but also drawing on their experiences as we work to support them.

"Families and those with lived experience have been pivotal in bringing change and helping shape our response to drugs misuse in Scotland. Of course, my sincere condolences go to anyone in Scotland who has lost a loved one to drugs.

"Those with lived experience have been involved in the designing the service and had input on staff recruitment. Indeed, people with lived experience, who know what it's like to see people injecting drugs in unsafe conditions, have joined the workforce at the facility."

Health Secretary Neil Gray said, "Worldwide evidence demonstrates that drug consumption facilities can help save and improve lives.

"The Scottish Government wants every person experiencing harm from alcohol or drug use to be able access the support they need and record levels of funding have been protected in next year's budget. We've maintained £112 million to local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships for local treatment and support services in 2024-25 - including £28.1 million to Greater Glasgow and Clyde ADP - and will continue to invest in residential rehabilitation.

"A recent PHS report suggests that, in 2022-23, the Scottish Government reached its target of 1,000 individuals a year being publicly funded to go to residential rehabilitation and that the number of individuals starting a placement which was publicly funded is likely to have almost doubled between 2019-20 and 2022-23.

"I would like to thank everyone involved in getting this life-saving service up and running for their hard work."

Number of drug misuse deaths in Scotland by drugs implicated
The rate was 2.7 times as high as the rates for England and Northern Ireland, and 2.1 times as high as the rate in Wales. Scotland continues to experience a higher death toll from drugs than any country in Europe, at 277 deaths per million 15-64-year-olds.

Scotland's drug-induced death rate is the highest in Europe based on the latest available data. At 27.7 per 100,000, it is almost three times higher than the next highest country, Ireland. There have been further challenges in recent years due to changing drug use habits and the growing prevalence of synthetic opioids.31 Oct 2024

In 2023, there were 1,172 drug misuse deaths registered in Scotland, an increase of 12% (121 deaths) compared with 2022.
Whilst drug misuse deaths in Scotland have generally been increasing over the last two decades, this is the second lowest number in the last six years.

Drug misuse deaths are still much more common than they were in 2000. After adjusting for age, the rate of drug misuse deaths were 4.2 times as high in 2023 than 2000.

In 2023, males were twice as likely to have a drug misuse death as females. Most of the increase in the past year was due to male deaths.

Since 2000, the average age of drug misuse deaths has increased from 32 to 45.

People in the most deprived areas of Scotland are more than 15 times as likely to die from drug misuse compared to people in the least deprived areas. The association of deprivation with drug misuse deaths is much greater than with other causes of death.
After adjusting for age, Glasgow City and Dundee City had the highest rates of drug misuse deaths while East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire had the lowest.

The most common type of drugs implicated in drug misuse deaths in 2023 were opiates/opioids which were implicated in 80% of all deaths.

The majority (88%) of drug misuse deaths were classified as accidental poisonings, with only 7% classed as intentional self-poisonings.