Claire Hayhurst/Alamy.com
A safer drug consumption facility in Glasgow has recorded more than 1,000 supervised injections in December 2025, following a year in which use of the service has grown month-by-month.
Latest service data on The Thistle, published by Glasgow City Health and Social Partnership, have revealed that the service was accessed 1,486 times, alongside 1,094 “injecting episodes”, in December 2025.
According to the data, this was the first time since the three-year pilot was launched in January 2025, that the number of injecting episodes reached 1,000.
Registered users of the centre have access to injection booths, where they can prepare and administer their own infections using clean equipment provided by the centre.
Staff at the centre do not assist with the injection but are on hand to provide harm reduction advice and provide intervene with assistance in the event of overdose. Service users can also access supplies of take-home naloxone.
In 2025, the centre’s services — which also include wound care, showers and laundry facilities — were accessed by a total of 560 people, the data show.
The figures also revealed that those clients used the services 10,819 times throughout the year, including 7,460 injecting episodes.
The substances injected at the facility were predominantly cocaine — which accounted for between 57% and 84% of the substances injected each month — heroin or a mixture of the two, known as a ‘snowball’, the data showed.
The data also revealed that there were 88 medical emergencies on the site in 2025.
In a report published in September 2025, the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee recommended that if the pilot is shown to be a success — and if the Scottish government makes the centre permanent — then the UK government should “work with the Scottish government to make the necessary changes to reserved legislation to ensure there is a full, sustainable legal framework for safer drug consumptions facilities in Scotland”.
However, a UK government response published in November 2025 said: “The government has been clear that it has no plans to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to enable the operation of DCRs [drug consumption rooms] in any part of the UK”.
Commenting on the Thistle data, Fiona McIntyre, policy and practice lead at Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scotland, said: “Every death from drug misuse is a tragedy for the individual as well as family, friends, and their wider community. The RPS has published a policy statement with 14 recommendations to reduce harm from drugs and drug deaths.
“One of these recommendations is that regulated supervised DCRs should be introduced. However, this is one recommendation amongst many, and it is important that a holistic approach is taken to reduce harm and deaths from drugs.
“We encourage the Scottish government to work with us to implement all of the recommendations in our policy statement, as part of a holistic approach to reducing harm from drugs and drug deaths, which utilises the experience and expertise of pharmacists.
“We note that the Thistle is a three-year pilot, and we will carefully consider the evaluation of the pilot before commenting more significantly on the centre,” she added.
