The UK government says it will not change the law to enable safer drug consumption facilities to open easily in Scotland, despite the success of safer drug consumption facility The Thistle in Glasgow.

Drug policy is currently reserved to Westminster and the Scottish Government had to push forward with the pilot, along with the Glasgow City Council. The Lord Advocate has made clear that the policy intent behind the safer consumption facility means that she is comfortable with its existence.

Cabinet secretary for health and social care, Neil Gray, told a Scottish Affairs Committee evidence session earlier in June: ‘I would wish to see the UK Government review its current drug laws. I would wish to see them have greater interaction on the safer consumption facility, because I know that other parts of the UK are interested in how this is operating, and whether it is effective. So I think it would be best if we saw a better legal framework for a facility like this to be established, whether that's in Scotland or in any other part of the UK.'

He said: ‘I'm very, very keen to see that dialogue continue on this area, as I am on other areas that we wish to explore, such as drug checking facilities that we are currently exploring with the UK Home Office, so that we can again provide greater resilience.'

Gray told the hearing that the initial evidence suggests that the facility is proving to be successful, with seven ambulance call-outs since the facility's launch in January, and 35 medical emergencies. In all cases, the service user survived to be able to return to the facility. 

He said: ‘My contention is, although I can't clearly prove it at this stage, that were those service users not within The Thistle, they would not have survived. 

‘We have seen early evidence to suggest that the facility is working. Now, what I want to see is for people to be alive to get into a recovery journey. Clearly, you cannot get into recovery if you are dead.'

Gray told the committee there have been calls from other parts of the country, including from Edinburgh, for safer consumption facilities to be established there. 

‘It is for the local health and social care partnership to come forward with that proposal to establish it,' he said.

‘They would be the ones that need to run it, rather than Government dictating where they are at this stage, while we're in the process of working within the law as it stands.'

Gray said the staff at The Thistle are seeing people who have not engaged with statutory services previously and is ‘hopeful' that the intention behind The Thistle of saving lives and reducing harm will be successful during the course of the pilot.

‘I would prefer for the Scottish Government to have the powers to be able to legislate in this area ourselves. Short of that, I would wish to see the UK Government legislate to reform the Misuse of Drugs Act, because I think we need to take a more of a public health harm reduction approach. 

‘I think that is demonstrably effective when you look at international evidence and is the course of action that we're taking here in Scotland within the powers that we have responsibility for.'

The committee also heard about the potential of adding an inhalation facility to The Thistle, which is a standard component of international safer drug consumption facilities, but this too would need permission from the Government and the Lord Advocate.

Gray told the hearing: ‘I understand, because of the changing nature of substance dependency, that the current establishment of the facility on an injection facility basis may provide limitations, and there is international evidence to point to the relative success of inhalation facilities.'

Gray concluded: ‘I don't believe that there is any single answer to what we are facing in Scotland, which is why the national mission has taken a number of different tracks in order to try to provide people with as many possible options to get access to recovery.' 

He added: ‘I don't think we should be turning our backs on any measure that could save lives, reduce harm and allow people the time and space that they need to find their recovery again.'