Chief Executive updates - 2025

January

Happy New Year - "I think a lot of people would have said the hurdles in front of us were insurmountable."

I hope you all had a chance to relax and spend some well-earned time with family and friends over the holiday period.

Glasgow has started 2025 by breaking new ground for a UK city and opening the country's first Safer Drugs Consumption Facility.

The Thistle, which welcomed its first service users on Monday, is a place where people who inject drugs can do so in relative safety - supervised by trained medical professionals.

Although we only got the green light to establish the facility towards the end of 2023 - and construction began less than a year ago - for some of us, Glasgow's Safer Drug Consumption Facility has been a decade in the making.

Faced with not only the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe, but a significant HIV outbreak among people injecting drugs, it was clear that our response to addiction and public health had to evolve.

There was, we believed, a critical need to create a safer, more controlled environment where people who were injecting drugs could be under the supervision of trained health professionals.

However, that was an approach that seemed, at least, to run at odds with much of much of the UK's legislative approach to dealing with illegal drugs.

The fact is that there is overwhelming international evidence which demonstrates that a SDCF can improve the health, wellbeing and recovery of people who use it - while also reducing the negative impact on local communities and businesses.

Across Europe and the wider world, they have been shown to improve the uptake of treatment and care, while reducing public injecting, for example.

But it is equally important to remember that The Thistle, while it might be the UK's only SDCF, it does not exist in isolation.

Glasgow's strategy has been to implement this approach alongside a number of other complementary services. These include the existing Enhanced Drug Treatment Service; alcohol and drug recovery, enhanced harm reduction; social wellbeing, and services addressing everything from sexual health to blood-borne viruses.

As we set about advocating for a SDCF in Glasgow, I think a lot of people would have said the hurdles in front of us were insurmountable.

But I'm very proud of the fact that the city was not only able to make a compelling case for change - but work pragmatically with partners to establish an operating model for The Thistle.

I have to also recognise the strong backing officers have had from political leaders during this process. Supporting a Safer Drug Consumption Facility will not always have been the easiest thing for members to do - but I'm confident it will prove to have been the right decision.