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RADAR: Suspected drug deaths in Scotland rise by 15%
RADAR: Suspected drug deaths in Scotland rise by 15%

The Herald Scotland

time7 hours ago

  • Health
  • The Herald Scotland

RADAR: Suspected drug deaths in Scotland rise by 15%

Detections of street benzodiazepines continue to decrease, while nitazene-type opioids are increasingly identified. Adulteration of heroin, benzodiazepines and oxycodone with nitazene-type opioids continues to be reported through testing data. Nitazenes are associated with rapid onset of overdose and difficulty reversing overdoses with naloxone. They are increasingly detected in hospital and post-mortem toxicology in Scotland. The majority of harm continues to involve the use of more than one substance. Among people who had an assessment for specialist drug treatment, powder cocaine was the most commonly reported main drug. Cocaine was the most commonly identified drug in NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside drug treatment testing, and ASSIST hospital toxicology. It was the second most common drug in post-mortem toxicology after heroin. READ MORE: What Edinburgh can learn from Glasgow's drug consumption room Will Glasgow's long-awaited drug consumption facility work? NHS health board admits 'no competence' in later abortion care At the start of this year, The Thistle - the UK's first and only drug consumption room - was opened to reduce harm. However, the Scottish Conservatives have been in strong opposition. Commenting on the latest figures, Scottish Conservative shadow minister for drugs Annie Wells MSP said: 'The tragic rise in suspected fatalities lays bare just how appallingly the SNP are failing to tackle the drugs deaths epidemic they've presided over. 'The Nationalists continue to pin all their hopes on drugs-consumption rooms as the sole solution to this crisis but, with deaths rising since The Thistle opened, it's clear their plan is not working. 'Complacent SNP ministers must finally accept that consumption rooms are not a silver bullet for Scotland's drugs emergency and focus instead on treatment and rehab. 'People need support, and they need it now. John Swinney should finally give his full backing to the Right to Recovery Bill, which is backed by frontline experts and would enshrine in law a right to treatment for all those who need it.' Scottish Labour has welcomed the safe consumption room pilot, however, they have warned it must not be used as substitute for efforts to clamp down on criminal gangs. Scottish Labour Health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: 'It is deeply troubling that drug deaths are on the rise again, with 312 suspected drug deaths between March and May this year. 'Scotland's drug emergency is claiming far too many lives and more must be done to not only save lives but ensure that people can recover. 'The SNP must start delivering a genuinely joined-up approach to tackle the drug death crisis and ensure that every single person struggling with drug misuse can get the care, support and treatment they need. 'Scottish Labour welcomes the safe consumption room pilot, but this is not a substitute for a co-ordinated effort to stop the supply of drugs by criminal gangs who have no thought for the tragedies they unleash. 'The SNP government must work with Police Scotland, local authorities and health boards to ensure that those making money out of this misery are held to account, while their victims have the best possible chance of recovery.' The Scottish Government has said they are working "at pace" to deliver drug-checking facilities and have said the are providing "record levels" of funding for drugs and alcohol programmes. Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Maree Todd said: 'Every drug death is a tragedy, and my condolences go to anyone who has lost a loved one. 'I am determined to do more to tackle drug harms and that is why we are providing record levels of funding for drugs and alcohol programmes, including widening access to treatment, residential rehabilitation and life-saving naloxone. We are also working at pace to deliver drug-checking facilities and we opened the UK's first Safer Drug Consumption Facility which is saving lives. 'We are working hard to respond to the growing threat from polydrug use, including 'street benzos' and cocaine, and from highly dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes. These synthetic drugs can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin and can increase the risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death. Because of their strength I would urge people to carry extra life-saving naloxone kits.'

Why are some people painting Calton as a needle-infested hell hole?
Why are some people painting Calton as a needle-infested hell hole?

The Herald Scotland

time05-07-2025

  • Health
  • The Herald Scotland

Why are some people painting Calton as a needle-infested hell hole?

The area has always been a hotspot for open-air injecting, and that is why it was chosen as the site of the drug consumption facility. It was already the location of a health and social care facility for homelessness services before The Thistle opened in January. In 2019, it became the location of the pioneering Enhanced Drug Treatment Service (EDTS). A separate project from The Thistle, the service treats patients with the most severe addictions who have not responded to existing treatment by giving them injectable diamorphine (heroin) twice a day. Working in tandem with Glasgow's Homeless Addictions Team, patients must be totally committed to the treatment and attend the centre twice a day, seven days a week. For this and other reasons, it seems logical that The Thistle opened where it did. I lived on the cusp of Calton for a few years, having moved in during the pandemic. With the city centre mostly empty, thanks to its remarkably low population for a city, it felt forgotten. Lawless. A no-man's-land populated by people on the fringes. I watched heroin deals out of the kitchen window in shock while scrubbing the dishes. Sometimes there would be drug paraphernalia left in the close after someone managed to get inside to use. But as lockdown restrictions eased and the area crawled back to life, the desolation seemed to wane. The areas we visit on our walk are not places that I would seek out, whether I was getting my shopping at Morrisons or walking to the health centre on Abercromby Street, so I can't recall a time when I was confronted with the deluge of drug litter that has been in the press. Though I understand why so many residents are scared that the amount of discarded drug paraphernalia is increasing in the area. Sharp objects that pierce you and perhaps infect you with something, cluttering areas in your community, is terrifying. I hate to use the word NIMBY here. I understand why residents wouldn't want this in their backyard. But the argument that it should be anywhere else but here is not entirely valid. The homelessness services and the open-air drug use were already in Calton's backyard. Now, politicians, campaigners, and potential future politicians are amplifying these fears for their own political gain. And it is important to cut through the noise. Take the Scottish Tories obtaining a Freedom of Information request for the number of complaints relating to drug paraphernalia within a one-mile radius of the facility between January and May 2025 to push their Right to Recovery Bill. These figures are misleading. A one-mile radius from The Thistle takes in most of the city centre, where drug use is prevalent, as well as Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, Royston, Gorbals and Dennistoun. Not to mention, there have historically been high reports for this area, even before The Thistle opened. Read more I attended a Calton Community Council meeting last month, and the mood was remarkably different from the anger displayed at a series of meetings at Saint Luke's, where residents and politicians gathered to demand that John Swinney take action and 'admit there's a problem' in the area. One resident at the meeting I attended had taken the opportunity to visit The Thistle, and she told the room that she was impressed with the work they were doing. While concerns were raised about public drug use in the ward, no one volunteered that it was connected to The Thistle. There is a growing political lobby that seeks to tie The Thistle into Scotland's drug death crisis, an increase in public safety issues due to open-air injecting, and to suggest that harm reduction is somehow getting in the way of abstinence-based, residential rehab beds. These arguments all seem to lead back to the Right to Recovery Bill. And the Right to Recovery Bill is, as Jan Major, the innovation lead at Turning Point Scotland, told me, a distraction. It pushes the idea that abstinence-based recovery is the right thing for everyone struggling with addiction, but that individualistic attitude (so favoured by the right) is flawed. Abstinence is not the only way that someone with a drug dependency can live a fulfilling life, and that rhetoric can set people up for failure if they are not accepted into rehab because they are not ready. People already have a right to treatment enshrined in the 2024 Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use. The Right to Recovery Bill requires a clinical diagnosis before granting the right to treatment, which is another added layer of gatekeeping. 'Are the people who are most affected by problematic alcohol and other drug use, from the most deprived parts of Scotland, who have been through the 'looked after' system, are they going to get a lawyer and sue the Scottish Government?' Major asks, pointing at a scenario where a hypothetical legal right to recovery was not honoured. 'I don't think it's going to happen.' As Major points out, drug addiction is not simply a medical problem. It is a problem of deprivation, trauma, and a lack of proper psychosocial support for the most vulnerable in society at every level. If it were a medical problem, you would not see such a difference between the richest parts of Scotland and the poorest. Politicians have been chasing headlines in the Calton, one of Scotland's most deprived communities. I understand why residents are upset. But it's important to be wary of who you hitch your wagon to. Returning to the area to discuss its problems, another story, a better story, revealed itself. That next to nearly every problem drug site, there was a big exciting development in view. From the Calton Village to the Collegelands, it seems like the area is on the up. It's time to stop stoking division, fear, and needling the people who live there. Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it's free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1

What is it like living next door to Scotland's drugs consumption room?
What is it like living next door to Scotland's drugs consumption room?

The Herald Scotland

time05-07-2025

  • The Herald Scotland

What is it like living next door to Scotland's drugs consumption room?

Beneath the canopy of an evergreen set back from Tobago Street, there are some clues that the space has been used for the consumption of illicit drugs. The odd sterile water ampoule or rusted cooker is wedged in the soil alongside discarded cans and plastic bottle caps, but since the thick overgrowth was cut back at the beginning of June, leaving the area exposed, open-air injecting in the clearing has dwindled. 'The footprint for drug users to be able to inject but not be seen publicly has decreased massively,' says Frank Sheeran. 'Therefore, they are being condensed into much smaller areas.' The chair of Molendinar Park Housing Association (MPHA) has been a resident in Calton, in Glasgow's East End, for 15 years. It's the reason he thinks there is a perception that illicit outdoor drug use has increased. The area where we are standing, sheltering under the tree's overhanging branches as fat raindrops begin to fall, was recently cleared by council workers in a swirl of controversy. But, as Sheeran points out on our Friday afternoon walk through Calton, many sites once notorious for drug taking are being brought back into proper use. The number of areas where people are using outdoors has contracted. What might have been seven or eight different sites has been reduced to two or three. 'These people have been pushed from the periphery, and they're in a much smaller condensed area,' Sheeran says. 'Therefore, it's logical that when you look at those areas, you will see an increase in drug paraphernalia.' New build flats on Barrack Street, Calton, Glasgow. (Image: Colin Mearns) New developments have transformed large swathes of derelict ground around Calton and the Gallowgate. The nearby site of the B-listed historic former meat market used to be a problem area. But the site is undergoing a £4.4 million regeneration as part of the broader Calton Village development. Sheeran sits on the board of the Meat Market Regeneration Community Interest Company and says that since work started on the site, drug users can no longer access it. Sheeran adds that he has not witnessed an increase in drug paraphernalia in the areas that MPHA operates. The problem of public intravenous drug use is not a new one. Sheeran, who has for a long time been deeply embedded in the community, has close links to the nearby St Mary's church on Abercromby Street and spent a lot of time there over the years. It was a common occurrence to discover drug users, as many as four times a day, at the back of the church compound, where they were hidden from view. The historic issues are why Hunter Street was chosen for The Thistle. All eyes have been on Calton since the UK's first Safer Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF) began in January as part of a three-year pilot project, allowing people to inject illegally-bought heroin or cocaine under medical supervision. It has since exploded as a wedge issue with some politicians and campaigners blaming the facility for increasing drug use in the area. Others have hit out at the rapid spread of 'misinformation' around the centre. In February, a video that falsely claimed that The Thistle staff were supplying people with drugs and injecting them themselves, as well as blaming the facility for needles being found at the nearby Morrisons car park, was viewed more than 150,000 times online. It was condemned by Health Secretary Neil Gray, who branded the falsehoods as 'shameful' when asked by Labour MSP Paul Sweeney what could be done to tackle incorrect information about the facility. Cllr Allan Casey defends The Thistle (Image: Colin Mearns) Councillor Allan Casey, in his role as the City Convenor for Workforce, Homelessness and Addiction Services at Glasgow City Council, has played a crucial role in delivering the facility and defends it despite the backlash. Last month, a freedom of information (FOI) request by the Scottish Tories revealed that council officials had received 175 complaints relating to drug paraphernalia within a one-mile radius of the facility between January and May 2025. In comparison, there were 187 reports of needles or drug paraphernalia in the previous five months, between August and December 2024. A one-mile radius from The Thistle takes in most of the city centre, where drug use is prevalent, as well as Bridgeton, Dalmarnock, Royston, Gorbals and Dennistoun. A total of 175 reports is similar to the period before, but a reduction overall, according to data obtained by our sister title, the Glasgow Times. The month before The Thistle opened, complaints had dropped to their lowest in two years. Annie Wells, drugs spokeswoman for the Tories, argued the 175 complaints were reason enough for the Scottish Government to back the party's Right to Recovery Bill, which looks to enshrine the right to treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. 'Annie Wells' remarks are not only detached from reality but dangerously misleading,' Councillor Casey told The Herald at the time. 'To suggest that crime and drug use are new problems in this community is a blatant denial of decades of challenges that this community has faced.' A discarded injection equipment provision pack in Calton, Glasgow. (Image: Colin Mearns) Marissa MacWhirter talking to Calton resident Frank Sheeran, right, and Cllr Allan Casey, City Convener for Workforce and Homelessness and Addiction Services pictured at left (Image: Colin Mearns) Tobago Street, Calton where undergrowth has been hacked back (Image: Colin Mearns) Drug paraphernalia found at the Tobago Street site was blamed on The Thistle, nearly a mile away. The council clean-up came after a series of heated meetings at Saint Luke's, a music venue on Bain Street. Attended by outspoken campaigners like FAVOR UK's Annemarie Ward (who helped draft the Right to Recovery Bill) and Blameless's Colin McGowan, dozens of residents lodged a call-to-action over drug litter in Calton, demanding First Minister John Swinney 'admit there is a problem'. McGowan brought a box containing 50 used needles to the meeting, which he claimed were collected in 'one minute' from the area where I stand with Casey and Sheeran now. The council's subsequent use of a digger to clear the Tobago Street land and strip back overgrowth caused an outpouring of concern from those who perceived its involvement to be a reflection of how much drug-related debris was present. 'The JCB was there to clear up historic fly tipping,' says Casey. His tone is tight with frustration as he leans against the tree trunk. 'People are deliberately distorting the facts on that and saying that we had to get a JCB to lift needles. That just isn't the case. It's not accurate.' Part of the problem with popular open-air injection sites is that they are on private land. The council needs to coordinate with owners to arrange clean-ups, which it can only justify using the public purse for via public health legislation. Casey says they are trying to be more proactive. 'What we want to be able to do is try and squeeze that public injecting into The Thistle as much as possible,' says Casey. A JCB clears the site (Image: Glasgow City Council) A Needle Drop Box (Image: Colin Mearns) Another area where the council has cut back overgrowth, cleared waste, and installed a disposal bin for hypodermic needles sits tucked away at the back of the Morrison's car park, near Hunter Street. We visited the site earlier in the day and found the contents of a drug package scattered around the pavement. Behind the bins, a fence has been installed to deter people from using drugs in the concealed thicket next to the adjacent unused train tracks. Signage for The Thistle is posted in known public injecting sites. 'It's not about trying to expose people,' says Casey about clearing back sites so they are visible from other public areas. 'But this is really dangerous, people injecting in these spaces. It's risky.' Last time he visited the area before the fence was up, he discovered two Naloxone kits, meaning someone might have overdosed there. People have quizzed Casey on why public injecting is still happening here, even though The Thistle centre is open. But The Thistle is 'there to reduce harm, not remove it completely' – at the moment, it's only open from 9am to 9pm. 'Intravenous drug users have a 24-hour a day problem,' Sheeran adds. Sheeran shops at the Calton Morrison's daily. It has become one of the main areas that people complain about. 'I see the same faces that have been here since Morrison's opened,' he says. Part of the reason is its proximity to the Lodging House Mission, a charity that does 'a great job' supporting homeless, vulnerable and socially excluded people. 'It naturally attracts vulnerable people because it's designed for vulnerable people.' Many of them, Sheeran says, are struggling with alcohol dependencies rather than drugs. 'A lot of people don't understand the difference,' says Sheeran. Frank Sheeran (Image: Colin Mearns) Some areas of Calton are being redeveloped (Image: Colin Mearns) 'I'm not just one of these guys that doesn't stay in the community and has a view on it,' Sheeran says. 'I do know what I'm talking about. I understand and I can empathise with these people. I can see what's happening on a day-to-day basis. That's why I have been active in the community. We need local people to be involved in the decision-making.' I ask Sheeran what kind of impact The Thistle and outdoor injecting have on his day-to-day life. 'It doesn't negatively impact me at all,' Sheeran replies. Each evening when he walks his dogs, Sheeran keeps his eye out for any injection material, but he maintains there has been 'absolutely no significant increase' in drug paraphernalia in the areas that he walks. 'But I'm not going to out-of-the-way places.' 'I've been supportive of The Thistle, it's not something I'm against,' Councillor Thomas Kerr tells me over the phone. 'Anything to try and tackle the drug deaths crisis, I've been supportive of.' The Shettleston representative, who defected from the Tories to Reform UK in January, has been vocal about representing the views of residents and business owners in and around Calton who feel there is an increase in drug litter since The Thistle opened. At the residents' meeting in Saint Luke's, he felt 'a real anger', and he doesn't think Calton is the right place for the SDFC. '[Residents] don't feel as if they have been consulted properly. They're angry at politicians, particularly in the City Chambers, who gaslight them.' Could the perception that there is an increase in drug paraphernalia be related to development, and the shrinking area of hidden derelict space for injecting? 'I understand that point entirely,' Kerr says. But he added, residents 'do feel as if there is some sort of increase round about because of The Thistle.' The issue hits close to home for Kerr. 'I had two parents who were drug addicts,' he says. 'You do not use drugs in a regulated way.' Kerr's dad, who was based in the East End, passed away in 2016. 'I don't think The Thistle would have saved his life.' 'Unless the council and the government are serious about opening [drug consumption] facilities in every single community, which they're not going to do because they don't have funding and communities wouldn't want it – then you need to be able to fund addiction properly,' he says. Reform UK councillor Thomas Kerr's parents were addictsKerr doesn't disagree with drug consumption facilities, he says, but maintains they are about 'managing an addiction rather than solving your addiction.' He has more faith in the impacts of abstinence-based rehab facilities. 'Which my mum has been through, and she's still here.' Health officials were required to consult the community before the Lord Advocate signed off on The Thistle's opening. Numerous drop-in meetings were held over the course of a year between the centre's staff and residents. In April, the Scottish Drugs Forum called on residents to get involved in the evaluation of the new service, and residents were invited by the centre, through the Calton Community Council, to visit the service and have any questions answered. 'It's become clear that there is a very strong local lobbying group against the centre, which is a real shame, because there was intention to engage and work with the community,' says Catriona Matheson, Professor in Substance Use at the University of Stirling and chair of the Ministerial Drug Death Task Force in Scotland from July 2019 to December 2021. It was always going to be controversial, but politicians amplifying local concerns 'can be quite harmful'. A false dichotomy has emerged, she says, where it seems like the only options are either abstinence-based, residential rehabilitation or harm reduction services (like The Thistle). So far, no one who has used The Thistle has requested residential rehab. A path to recovery could look like moving from chaotic street injecting to a stabilising treatment, like an opiate replacement therapy, before thinking about moving towards abstinence and residential treatments once in a better place. 'But, going straight from the harm reduction injecting facility to residential rehab would be quite a leap,' she says. 'What will be interesting is whether any of the people using the facility have previously been in residential treatment, and happened to them?' Professor Matheson muses. A poster directing people to The Thistle in Calton (Image: Colin Mearns) The Thistle is a very important, 'symbolic' step forward, but there is a risk that people are seeing it as more than it is. 'It's not a silver bullet,' says Jan Mayor, Practice and Innovation Lead for Alcohol and Other Drugs at Turning Point Scotland (TPS). 'I think a lot of hope is being invested in it, or people are setting it up to do a lot more than it's capable of doing.' The idea that harm reduction and abstinence-based residential rehabilitation are in competition is a 'myth in the public, or in the media, or sometimes politically wound up.' 'We need the whole range,' says Major. 'There are very, very few people who get to abstinence-based recovery, and it's not the only type of recovery; there are many ways to recover.' 'What the people who provide abstinence-based recovery services would say is they don't want people to be sent through to them who aren't ready for that stage of the journey,' she adds. 'You don't jump from the bottom of a ladder to the top of the mountain.' Drug use patterns have changed over the years, something that is important to acknowledge when talking about the facts and figures around discarded needles, drug deaths, and other statistics associated with the drug crisis. People now inject cocaine, meaning they inject more times a day than with heroin (cocaine is the most used drug at The Thistle). The illegal, unregulated drug market is also becoming even more toxic over time. The Taliban has reduced the poppy crop in Afghanistan by about 80 to 90 per cent, meaning there is a massive shortage of heroin, driving the surge in dangerous, synthetic opiates like Nitazines. And deprivation is getting worse. 'We know deprivation is a driver of the problems, and deprivation is getting worse because inequalities are getting worse,' says Major. 'We had street use beforehand,' Major says. She understands why people are frightened but is wary of those fears being twisted for 'political capital'. 'What they're doing is dividing us. These are not evil, bad people. These are traumatised people who are your neighbours. They live there. That's why they're using this site. These are the most damaged people in your neighbourhood. And if we can help them to get well, that's in everybody's interest.' For many people who have used The Thistle, it was their first time accessing services. 'That will probably be the first time that anybody's ever shown a bit of compassion, shown them they mean something, shown them they matter, shown that they deserve the time and effort of staff and harm reduction workers,' says Casey. 'And that goes a long way in building trust with those individuals because they are the furthest away from services.' They are often the farthest away from being ready for recovery. While staff have filled out plenty of referrals to support services and other forms of treatment, not a single person has requested abstinence-based residential rehab. 'What we want to do is work with those individuals, build trust with them, let them use the facility, and bring them on a journey towards whatever the path to recovery looks like for them.' Casey is firm about it still being early days for The Thistle, but the trust is slowly coming along. Sheeran agrees. He is 100 per cent in support of The Thistle. 'It's a fantastic initiative.' The drug users 'are being described as subhuman by a lot of people in the community,' Sheeran says. 'They refer to the people as junkies, scum of the Earth. They are people first and foremost, and as a social, caring society, we have a duty to look after the vulnerable people. Vulnerable people aren't just young or old, vulnerable people come in many shapes and forms, and we need to show that that level of care and understanding applies to everyone.' Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it's free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1

EXCLUSIVE Addicts slumped in doorways, discarded needles and more dealers, life beside SNP's drugs consumption room
EXCLUSIVE Addicts slumped in doorways, discarded needles and more dealers, life beside SNP's drugs consumption room

Daily Mail​

time28-06-2025

  • Health
  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE Addicts slumped in doorways, discarded needles and more dealers, life beside SNP's drugs consumption room

Slumped in a doorway surrounded by drugs paraphernalia an addict lies collapsed in a drug-induced haze. Yards away are grassy areas littered with drugs 'debris' – hypodermic needles and heroin pipes. Just around the corner, and, sadly with more than a hint of irony, sits the SNP 's £2.3million 'harm reduction' centre that was opened to stop this very thing happening. When he visited with great fanfare in January John Swinney proclaimed Britain's first safer drugs consumption room as a 'significant step forward' in tackling Scotland's appalling record of harm and deaths caused by drugs. Yet, residents and businesses talk of a 'living hell' and are now threatening to quit the area as they are met with daily scenes of drug addicts injecting in the street, discarded needles strewn around their neighbourhood and drug dealing. The facility in question is The Thistle, officially referred to as a 'safer drugs consumption room'. Those less supportive of its operation say it is nothing more than a heroin 'shooting gallery'. It allows addicts to inject their own drugs under medical supervision in a bid to reduce overdose deaths and cut discarded needles in public places. Such is the SNP government's support for the venture they have committed to backing it with £2million of public cash – every year. However, for many living and working in the area, its opening has been far from a positive development. Many believe the problem of addicts openly taking drugs in the streets has increased as well as the proliferation of dirty needles being discarded in their neighbourhoods and drug dealing. This week the Mail on Sunday visited the area to speak to residents and businesses and see first-hand the situation they find themselves in. It did not take long to understand why they are angry. In a patch of grass facing a row of houses a pile of litter was the first sign of drug use. Wrappers for needles, handed out by health professionals, lie next to state-issued 'foil' – provided to addicts to help them take a hit safely. Elsewhere we find dirty needles, used and discarded where anyone, including children, could suffer a needlestick injury. Even in areas where specially-designed needle bins have been installed there are still used syringes lying in the open. We also encountered faeces-covered clothing discarded in areas littered with dirty needles. One addict, having finished shooting up, had chosen to stick their dirty syringe into the grass where they'd been sitting – a health threat left for others to deal with. No wonder local people are furious at the situation. Resident Vanessa Paton said: 'I have sympathy for these people but they're not interested or responsible and this room is just facilitating their addiction. They're saying this project is in its infancy, but it's already like Beirut, it's like living in a war zone. 'It's like the day of the living dead and we're being told this is normal and the project is working. You're encouraging and enabling people, not helping anyone to come off drugs.' Martin Keown, is the director of Calton M.O.T. Centre, which is just a four-minute walk from The Thistle. He said: 'Since that building was opened, our car park space has become overrun by addicts and their needles. It's also become a dumping ground for all the drugs kits containing needles, alcohol swabs, and foil spoons. 'Even though I've spent £18,000 to install a new fence and a solid steel gate at my own expense, users are still jumping over the fence to hit up in my yard. They're leaving used needles, and sometimes even fully loaded needles that are ready to go.' He added: 'A few months ago we found two fully loaded needles propped up against the fence posts like pencils, as if the addicts set them up to use but then got distracted. 'My kids found it and said: 'Dad we've just found something bad that looks like blood in the yard.' They're nine and six.' Footage filmed inside the car park shows an addict brazenly perched against a car, as he prepares to inject himself in the open despite being less than 200 yards from the taxpayer-funded facility designed for that very purpose. The locals who encounter, challenge and talk to some of the addicts who engage in this behaviour say there are numerous reasons why they are still taking drugs in the open. Some have said they will not go to the centre as they distrust the authorities, while others say they need to get their fix immediately after buying drugs, without having to walk to Hunter Street where The Thistle is based. Linda Watson, 68, is a community activist, who was raised in the area. She said: 'A lot of users are not using the actual facility. They are coming here simply because they know there's a supply here. We're just being used as guinea pigs, we're part of a big experiment and there's no-one here to support us. The drug littering has been diabolical, some hit spots ended up with a total carpet of paraphernalia and syringes.' 'I love where I live, we were all brought up here, but people just don't feel safe anymore. People are publicly injecting themselves, they don't even try to hide it.' She added: 'A few weeks ago there was someone sitting in the play park when kids are cutting through to get to school, with his trousers down blatantly shooting up.' The impact of is making it harder for some businesses to operate. Janet Rogers, 55, started working in Bobbi D's salon on nearby Gallowgate in 1989 and worked her way up till she eventually took it over. She said: 'A lot of older people come to me because my business has been going for so long. But a lot of them don't want to come out now because they're scared. They're getting intimidated by dealers and users – there's loads of them just hanging about, lurking. 'They're getting in the closes beside the shop. I've seen plenty of shooting up, they leave needles and tin foil lying about outside the shop, it's terrible.' Ms Rogers fears she will have to close up as a result of the issues she is facing. She added: 'This shop has been my whole life and I just feel totally burnt out with it all, it's just soul-destroying.' The idea behind The Thistle is that by allowing addicts to inject their own drugs under medical supervision, the number of people suffering an overdose can be reduced as well as the number of discarded needles. However, in light of our investigation, the Scottish Conservatives have called for the SNP administration to end its 'reckless experiment'. MSP Annie Wells, who acts as the party's drugs spokeswoman, said: 'The SNP's flagship drug consumption room is making life a misery for local residents and businesses. 'They pinned all their hopes on state-sponsored drug taking, but their solution is failing. Locals are being left to clean up the SNP's mess. 'If the Nationalists continue down this road, businesses near The Thistle will be left with no choice than to sell up and move away. 'SNP ministers should call time on this reckless experiment and finally back the game-changing Right to Recovery Bill, which would enshrine in law a right to treatment.' The Thistle, which has already seen more than 250 addicts use its facilities to inject more than 3,000 times in total, is run by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership. Councillor Allan Casey, city convener for addictions, said: 'We understand the ongoing concerns from residents. We have a community forum set up and running specifically for residents and businesses to attend to allow us to hear directly from them and take necessary actions. 'However, to suggest crime and drug use are new problems in this community is a blatant denial of decades of challenges this community has faced. 'The Thistle is not the cause of these issues — it is part of the solution. In fact, the Thistle has undoubtedly saved lives that would have otherwise been lost thanks to the intervention of staff.' The Scottish Government said it recognises people's concerns and that its partners 'are addressing them through outreach work, ongoing needle uplift operations, and plans to expand public needle disposal bins'. It also said 'a comprehensive independent evaluation' will examine the service's impact and that research and evaluation from similar facilities around the world has shown such facilities 'can reduce levels of public drug consumption and publicly discarded drug-related litter'.

‘Courageous' drug policy campaigner Peter Krykant found dead aged 48
‘Courageous' drug policy campaigner Peter Krykant found dead aged 48

The Independent

time12-06-2025

  • Health
  • The Independent

‘Courageous' drug policy campaigner Peter Krykant found dead aged 48

Peter Krykant, the campaigner who risked arrest to blaze a trail for safer drug consumption facilities in Scotland, has died at the age of 48. The activist became a public figure in 2020 after creating and operating the UK's first unofficial overdose prevention service in Glasgow using a repurposed van, in a bid to alleviate the drug deaths crisis still claiming lives in Scotland and the wider UK. Operating for nine months, the service – which offered drug users in the city a sanitary and supervised alternative to consuming drugs alone in the street or at home – oversaw nearly 900 injections, successfully intervening in all nine overdoses that occurred, a study found. These lifesaving facilities have long been rejected by Westminster, despite being used in close to 20 countries worldwide, and Krykant was arrested in 2020 for his efforts to prevent overdoses and reduce the spread of bloodborne viruses – with the charges later dropped. In the wake of Krykant's activism, however, Scotland's lord advocate intervened in 2023 to say that such prosecutions 'would not be in the public interest'. As a result, the UK government relented that it would not block such services in Scotland, as pressure mounted on Holyrood to take more radical steps to save lives. The UK's only safer drug consumption facility, The Thistle, opened in the East End of Glasgow earlier this year. In its first seven weeks of opening, The Thistle was used more than 1,000 times by 143 individuals, with a number of medical emergencies managed over that period. But while many campaigners credit Krykant with paving the way for this lifesaving service and helping to pile pressure on Holyrood to prioritise tackling the crisis, the campaigner would later say that it had taken a toll on his own wellbeing. 'It took somebody ruining their life for them [politicians] to say they could do something about it [the drugs crisis], and that person was me,' Krykant told author Dr Kojo Koram in January, adding: 'I'm not in a good place, now. And that all stems from when I took the decision to go out and run that van.' After running his facility for nine months in Glasgow without funding or official permission, Krykant donated the vehicle, which was later upgraded to a repurposed ambulance, to the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which took it around the UK. Krykant would later stand in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections as an independent candidate, and went on to work for the drug treatment charity Cranstoun, continuing to be a prominent voice globally in drug policy discussions. Mr Krykant, who started taking drugs aged 11 and began to inject heroin at the age of 17, while also experiencing homelessness, stopped using drugs for 11 years. He would later say that the pressure of politics and his activism had caused him to relapse into using drugs. He had been visiting London in the days before his death but had returned to his flat in Larbert, when friends became concerned about his wellbeing, the Daily Record reported. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'Around 5.15pm on Monday, 9 June 2025, police attended an address in Graham Avenue, Larbert following a report of a concern for person. 'The body of a 48-year-old man was found within. His next of kin has been informed. A post mortem examination will be carried out in due course. The death is being treated as unexplained.' Scotland's first minister John Swinney was among those to pay tribute to Krykant, saying: 'His powerful voice on drugs policy reform, in particular his tireless work to deliver safe consumption rooms, leaves an important legacy which will be remembered.' Aamer Anwar, the lawyer who represented Krykant when he was arrested in 2020, described him as 'a one-man army, with a mission to save lives', adding: 'It was humbling to see him single-handedly fight to deliver the first safe consumption room for drugs in the UK. 'Since childhood he was driven by demons, but Peter was also a beautiful, kind and courageous man. He leaves behind his two boys whom he loved dearly and family and friends who will be utterly devastated. 'I hope with time they can find some comfort in that Peter will be at peace and his name will one day be remembered as a drugs campaigner decades ahead of his time.' Journalist Dani Garavelli said: 'Peter Krykant kept all the lives being lost to drugs in the public eye [and] forced the Scottish government into action'. Noting that, without his efforts, The Thistle would not exist, the columnist added: 'It was a privilege to know him. I hope he's at peace.' Ronnie Cowan, former SNP MP for Inverclyde, said: 'Peter Krykant dared to go where no politicians would. He led by example with great bravery and a tenacious enthusiasm. While we talked and people died, Peter acted. I was proud to support his DCR and only wish we could have done more.'

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