Latest news with #DorothyBain
The National
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Lord Advocate responds to watchdog's Palestine Action arrests warning
Dorothy Bain, Scotland's Lord Advocate and the head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said on Monday that prosecutors would be 'respecting human rights in all our decisions' after receiving a warning from a watchdog. The Scottish Human Rights Commission chair, Professor Angela O'Hagan, had written to both Bain and Police Scotland chief constable Jo Farrell raising concerns that the force's handling of Palestine protests risked breaching the right to free expression and freedom of assembly. READ MORE: Number 10 warns Sally Rooney risks terror offence after Palestine Action comments 'It is vital that Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service remember that there are very narrow circumstances under which political speech and ideas can be lawfully restricted, under European Convention on Human Rights [ECHR],' O'Hagan said. 'Whether the proscription of Palestine Action amounts to a justified interference is a matter for the courts and UK Parliament. However, the proscription should not and does not inhibit the right to peaceful protest. 'There is a difference between support for a proscribed organisation and support for a political or moral viewpoint. Law enforcement that does not recognise this distinction is a risk to human rights.' In a response published on Monday, Bain said she hoped to reassure the human rights chief that they 'share much common ground'. Dorothy Bain is Scotland's Lord Advocate (Image: (Andrew Milligan/PA))'I recognise the fundamental right of people to protest within legal boundaries,' Bain said. 'I agree it is imperative that the right to peaceful protest, as guaranteed by articles 9, 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, is upheld. Any interference must of course be justified, proportionate and in accordance with the law.' She went on to acknowledge 'sensitivities' around the UK Government's decision to proscribe Palestine Action in July, saying: 'Cases involving 'Palestine Action' reported to the Procurator Fiscal will be considered by a specialist prosecutor, overseen by senior prosecutors. 'The prosecutor will carefully examine whether there is sufficient evidence and determine what action, if any, should be taken in the public interest. 'This process ensures that all cases are handled fairly, regardless of the nature or cause of the protest. READ MORE: Reform councillor shares stage with 'neo-Nazi' at protest in Falkirk 'The rule of law would be undermined if police and prosecutors applied the criminal law inconsistently according to the cause of the protest.' Bain also pointed O'Hagan to guidance given to Police Scotland 'on the arrest and liberation of individuals involved in protest'. 'These guidelines … make clear that 'The right to peacefully protest is protected by law and it is anticipated that peaceful protest will be facilitated by any police response',' Bain said. The Lord Advocate's letter comes after activists levelled allegations at Police Scotland saying the force had breached their human rights to free expression. Activists have been charged under terrorism offences for wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan 'Genocide in Palestine time to take action'. Over the weekend, Police Scotland officers were seen detaining a man in Glasgow who was wearing a satirical T-shirt calling for 'Plasticine Action' and opposing AI-generated animation.
The Herald Scotland
05-08-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Palestine Action crackdown could breach human rights laws
A letter addressed to Chief Constable Jo Farrell and Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain reads: 'Concerns have been raised by international and domestic human rights experts, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, about the potential 'chilling effect' the proscription of Palestine Action could have on the right to protest. 'Since the UK Government took this decision, there have been reports of an increase in arrests at pro-[[Palestine]] demonstrations. Media reports indicate that not all these individuals were verbalising explicit support for a proscribed organisation. 'The SHRC is concerned that the application of the Terrorism Act 2000 in some of these arrests risks disproportionately restricting the right to peaceful protest, which is guaranteed by Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.' Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain. (Image: PA) The Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Professor Angela O'Hagan, said: 'It is vital that Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service remember that there are very narrow circumstances under which political speech and ideas can be lawfully restricted, under the European Convention on Human Rights. 'Whether the proscription of Palestine Action amounts to a justified interference is a matter for the Courts and UK Parliament. However, the proscription should not and does not inhibit the right to peaceful protest.' Professor O'Hagan added: 'There is a difference between support for a proscribed organisation and support for a political or moral viewpoint. Law enforcement that does not recognise this distinction is a risk to human rights. 'We urge Police Scotland to issue clear guidance to officers on the need for proportionality in their policing.' More than 200 people have been arrested across the UK on suspicion of support for Palestine Action since the ban came into force. Last month, Palestine Action was proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 after causing £7m of damage to two jet planes at RAF Brize Norton. This means that expressing support for or being a member of the group is a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Read more: Long Covid charities quit working group over Scottish Government 'failure' Scottish activists in free speech row after Palestine Action proscription 'We will dissolve the union': SNP rebels unveil rival independence plan During the TRSNMT festival, a 55-year-old man was charged under anti-terror legislation for allegedly wearing a t-shirt bearing the message "Genocide in Palestine Time to Take Action.' On July 18, a 64-year-old man was arrested in Glasgow for allegedly holding a sign bearing the same words. And three men were arrested in Edinburgh for 'showing support for a proscribed organisation' in two separate incidents on July 19 and July 21. A Police Scotland spokesperson previously told The Herald: 'We have a legal duty to protect the rights of people who wish to peacefully protest or counter-protest. 'It is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000 to be a member of a proscribed organisation or to invite or express support for them. 'This includes wearing clothing or carrying any item in public in such a way as to arouse suspicion that they are a member of, or a supporter of a proscribed organisation.'
CNN
11-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Scotland faces up to its drug crisis by offering the UK's first supervised injection facility
In a quiet corner of Glasgow's East End, a radical public health experiment is underway. For the first time in the United Kingdom, people who inject illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine can do so under medical supervision – in a safe environment and indoors. No arrests. No judgment. No questions about where the drugs came from – only how to make their use less deadly. The facility, known as the Thistle, opened in January amid mounting political and public health pressure to confront Scotland's deepening drug crisis. With the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe, Scottish health officials say, there have long been calls for a more pragmatic, compassionate response. Funded by the devolved Scottish government and modelled on more than 100 similar sites across Europe and North America, the pilot safe drug consumption facility marks a significant departure from the UK's traditionally punitive approach to illegal drug use. Dorothy Bain, who heads Scotland's prosecution service and advises the government, told a UK parliamentary committee in May that 'it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of the Glasgow safer drug consumption facility for possession of drugs for personal use.' She added that the approach would be kept under review to ensure it 'is not causing difficulties, raising the risk of further criminality or having an unlawful impact on the community.' Supporters describe it as a long-overdue shift toward harm reduction. Critics warn it risks becoming a place where damaging addiction is maintained, not treated. Located in a low-slung clinical building near the city center, the Thistle is a space where individuals bring their own drugs, prepare them on site, and inject under the watchful eyes of trained staff. The service provides no substances, nor does it allow drug sharing between users. What it offers instead is clean equipment, medical oversight, and a protected environment for a population who might otherwise use in alleyways, public toilets or dumpster sheds, with the associated risks for themselves and the wider community. 'We've had almost 2,500 injections inside the facility,' Dr. Saket Priyadarshi, the clinical lead of the Thistle, told a CNN team who visited the facility in early June. 'That's 2,500 less injections in the community, in parks, alleyways, car parks.' All users must register before receiving support, providing only their initials and date of birth. Staff ask what drugs they plan to use and how. Then, they observe – not intervene – ready to act in the event of an emergency. 'We've had to manage over 30 medical emergencies inside the facility,' Priyadarshi said. 'Some of them were severe overdoses that most likely would have ended in fatalities if we hadn't been able to respond to them immediately here.' Nurses work with patients to reduce harm wherever possible, advising on injection technique, equipment, and vein placement. 'We'll spend a bit of time with them. Just (to) try and get the vein finder working,' said Lynn MacDonald, the service manager at the facility, referring to a handheld device that uses infrared light to illuminate veins beneath the skin. 'People have often learnt technique from other people who are using it and it's not particularly good,' she told CNN. With equipment such as vein finders, she said, the staff at the Thistle are able to highlight 'better' sites of injection to 'reduce harm and make the injection safer.' The Scottish government told CNN that the service has already delivered results in terms of public health. 'Through the ability of staff to respond quickly in the event of an overdose, the Thistle service has already saved lives,' Scottish health secretary Neil Gray said. The service, he said, is 'helping to protect people against blood-borne viruses and taking used needles off the street.' The Thistle bears little resemblance to a medical clinic. There are no fluorescent white lights, no clinical uniforms, and no sterile white rooms. Even the language has been reimagined: users aren't brought into 'interview rooms,' but welcomed into 'chat rooms.' The space itself is soft and deliberate, - furnished with books, jigsaws, warm lighting and a café-style area where people can sit, drink tea, shower, or have their clothes washed. 'The whole service is just designed to that ethos of treating people with a bit of dignity, a bit of respect, bringing them in, making them feel welcome,' Macdonald told CNN. 'We want them to leave knowing somebody cares about them and we're looking forward to seeing them safe and well again.' For Margaret Montgomery, whose son Mark began using heroin at 17, the existence of the Thistle offers a degree of solace that once felt impossible. Now in his fifties, Mark is no longer using – but it took years, and distance, to get there. 'My son went into treatment and it's like six weeks, three months, six months. That's not enough time. There's no aftercare,' Montgomery told CNN. She added that she'd asked her son whether he would have used the Thistle 'all those years ago.' 'He said, 'yes, I probably would have used it because of the other facilities that they're offering in there.'' Mark declined to speak with CNN himself but was happy for his mother to recount his experience. What the Thistle represents, for Montgomery, is not approval – but reprieve. 'Nobody wants to think their children are taking drugs anywhere,' she said. 'There must be parents that are sat out there and they're going, 'well thank god he's going in there and he's doing that in there, not in a bin shed.'' Her support is unflinching – and practical. She is the chairperson of a family support group that was consulted about the Thistle. 'I think the Thistle's the best thing that's happened in Glasgow,' she told CNN. Others see the facility not as an act of compassion, but as a quiet surrender. Annemarie Ward, who has been in recovery for 27 years, believes that without a clear route to abstinence, harm reduction risks becoming a form of institutionalized maintenance. 'Have we given up trying to help people? Are we just trying to maintain people's addictions now?' she told CNN. Ward, who is from Glasgow, is the chief executive of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK (Favor UK), and a campaigning voice for better access and treatment choices for those seeking help with addiction. For Ward, the danger lies not in what the Thistle does, but in what it omits: a vision of freedom from dependency. Without that, she argues, the ethics of such facilities become blurred. 'If our whole system is focused on maintaining people's addiction and not giving them the opportunity to exit that system,' she said, 'I think there's an ethical and moral question that we need to ask.' The Thistle is 'just prolonging the agony of addiction,' she said. 'If you know anybody who's suffered in that way or loved anybody that's suffered that way you would see how inhumane this actually is.' But Glasgow City Council says that the facility is one strand of a broader strategy. The council says that the Thistle does not divert 'from other essential alcohol and drug services in the city,' adding that the local authority 'also invests heavily in treatment and care and recovery services.' 'Comparing these interventions is not helpful,' the council said in a statement. 'All services are equally important – and needed – to allow us to support people who most need them.' The idea itself is not new. The world's first safer drug consumption room opened in Switzerland in 1986 -– a clinical counterpoint to street-level chaos. Since then, the model has spread across Europe, from Portugal and the Netherlands to Germany, Denmark and Spain, and beyond to Canada and New York City. The Thistle, the UK's first iteration, operates 365 days a year, and shares its premises with addiction services and social care teams. As of June, 71.9% of drugs injected inside were cocaine, with heroin making up a further 20%. The users are overwhelmingly male. Most have been injecting for years; all are at risk. Still, resistance remains. CNN spoke to several people in the area who were concerned about the facility's opening and said it had encouraged more drug users to come to the area in the six months since opening. Others, however, told CNN that they had noticed there were fewer needles and less discarded drug paraphernalia on the ground since the clinic opened. Chief Inspector Max Shaw, of Police Scotland, told CNN that the force was 'aware of long-standing issues in the area' and was 'committed to reducing the harm associated with problematic substance use and addiction.' He added that officers would continue to work with local communities to address concerns. For the nurses, doctors and support staff who work in the building, the mission remains immediate: delivering potentially life-saving support to those in need.
CNN
11-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Scotland faces up to its drug crisis by offering the UK's first supervised injection facility
In a quiet corner of Glasgow's East End, a radical public health experiment is underway. For the first time in the United Kingdom, people who inject illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine can do so under medical supervision – in a safe environment and indoors. No arrests. No judgment. No questions about where the drugs came from – only how to make their use less deadly. The facility, known as the Thistle, opened in January amid mounting political and public health pressure to confront Scotland's deepening drug crisis. With the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe, Scottish health officials say, there have long been calls for a more pragmatic, compassionate response. Funded by the devolved Scottish government and modelled on more than 100 similar sites across Europe and North America, the pilot safe drug consumption facility marks a significant departure from the UK's traditionally punitive approach to illegal drug use. Dorothy Bain, who heads Scotland's prosecution service and advises the government, told a UK parliamentary committee in May that 'it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of the Glasgow safer drug consumption facility for possession of drugs for personal use.' She added that the approach would be kept under review to ensure it 'is not causing difficulties, raising the risk of further criminality or having an unlawful impact on the community.' Supporters describe it as a long-overdue shift toward harm reduction. Critics warn it risks becoming a place where damaging addiction is maintained, not treated. Located in a low-slung clinical building near the city center, the Thistle is a space where individuals bring their own drugs, prepare them on site, and inject under the watchful eyes of trained staff. The service provides no substances, nor does it allow drug sharing between users. What it offers instead is clean equipment, medical oversight, and a protected environment for a population who might otherwise use in alleyways, public toilets or dumpster sheds, with the associated risks for themselves and the wider community. 'We've had almost 2,500 injections inside the facility,' Dr. Saket Priyadarshi, the clinical lead of the Thistle, told a CNN team who visited the facility in early June. 'That's 2,500 less injections in the community, in parks, alleyways, car parks.' All users must register before receiving support, providing only their initials and date of birth. Staff ask what drugs they plan to use and how. Then, they observe – not intervene – ready to act in the event of an emergency. 'We've had to manage over 30 medical emergencies inside the facility,' Priyadarshi said. 'Some of them were severe overdoses that most likely would have ended in fatalities if we hadn't been able to respond to them immediately here.' Nurses work with patients to reduce harm wherever possible, advising on injection technique, equipment, and vein placement. 'We'll spend a bit of time with them. Just (to) try and get the vein finder working,' said Lynn MacDonald, the service manager at the facility, referring to a handheld device that uses infrared light to illuminate veins beneath the skin. 'People have often learnt technique from other people who are using it and it's not particularly good,' she told CNN. With equipment such as vein finders, she said, the staff at the Thistle are able to highlight 'better' sites of injection to 'reduce harm and make the injection safer.' The Scottish government told CNN that the service has already delivered results in terms of public health. 'Through the ability of staff to respond quickly in the event of an overdose, the Thistle service has already saved lives,' Scottish health secretary Neil Gray said. The service, he said, is 'helping to protect people against blood-borne viruses and taking used needles off the street.' The Thistle bears little resemblance to a medical clinic. There are no fluorescent white lights, no clinical uniforms, and no sterile white rooms. Even the language has been reimagined: users aren't brought into 'interview rooms,' but welcomed into 'chat rooms.' The space itself is soft and deliberate, - furnished with books, jigsaws, warm lighting and a café-style area where people can sit, drink tea, shower, or have their clothes washed. 'The whole service is just designed to that ethos of treating people with a bit of dignity, a bit of respect, bringing them in, making them feel welcome,' Macdonald told CNN. 'We want them to leave knowing somebody cares about them and we're looking forward to seeing them safe and well again.' For Margaret Montgomery, whose son Mark began using heroin at 17, the existence of the Thistle offers a degree of solace that once felt impossible. Now in his fifties, Mark is no longer using – but it took years, and distance, to get there. 'My son went into treatment and it's like six weeks, three months, six months. That's not enough time. There's no aftercare,' Montgomery told CNN. She added that she'd asked her son whether he would have used the Thistle 'all those years ago.' 'He said, 'yes, I probably would have used it because of the other facilities that they're offering in there.'' Mark declined to speak with CNN himself but was happy for his mother to recount his experience. What the Thistle represents, for Montgomery, is not approval – but reprieve. 'Nobody wants to think their children are taking drugs anywhere,' she said. 'There must be parents that are sat out there and they're going, 'well thank god he's going in there and he's doing that in there, not in a bin shed.'' Her support is unflinching – and practical. She is the chairperson of a family support group that was consulted about the Thistle. 'I think the Thistle's the best thing that's happened in Glasgow,' she told CNN. Others see the facility not as an act of compassion, but as a quiet surrender. Annemarie Ward, who has been in recovery for 27 years, believes that without a clear route to abstinence, harm reduction risks becoming a form of institutionalized maintenance. 'Have we given up trying to help people? Are we just trying to maintain people's addictions now?' she told CNN. Ward, who is from Glasgow, is the chief executive of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK (Favor UK), and a campaigning voice for better access and treatment choices for those seeking help with addiction. For Ward, the danger lies not in what the Thistle does, but in what it omits: a vision of freedom from dependency. Without that, she argues, the ethics of such facilities become blurred. 'If our whole system is focused on maintaining people's addiction and not giving them the opportunity to exit that system,' she said, 'I think there's an ethical and moral question that we need to ask.' The Thistle is 'just prolonging the agony of addiction,' she said. 'If you know anybody who's suffered in that way or loved anybody that's suffered that way you would see how inhumane this actually is.' But Glasgow City Council says that the facility is one strand of a broader strategy. The council says that the Thistle does not divert 'from other essential alcohol and drug services in the city,' adding that the local authority 'also invests heavily in treatment and care and recovery services.' 'Comparing these interventions is not helpful,' the council said in a statement. 'All services are equally important – and needed – to allow us to support people who most need them.' The idea itself is not new. The world's first safer drug consumption room opened in Switzerland in 1986 -– a clinical counterpoint to street-level chaos. Since then, the model has spread across Europe, from Portugal and the Netherlands to Germany, Denmark and Spain, and beyond to Canada and New York City. The Thistle, the UK's first iteration, operates 365 days a year, and shares its premises with addiction services and social care teams. As of June, 71.9% of drugs injected inside were cocaine, with heroin making up a further 20%. The users are overwhelmingly male. Most have been injecting for years; all are at risk. Still, resistance remains. CNN spoke to several people in the area who were concerned about the facility's opening and said it had encouraged more drug users to come to the area in the six months since opening. Others, however, told CNN that they had noticed there were fewer needles and less discarded drug paraphernalia on the ground since the clinic opened. Chief Inspector Max Shaw, of Police Scotland, told CNN that the force was 'aware of long-standing issues in the area' and was 'committed to reducing the harm associated with problematic substance use and addiction.' He added that officers would continue to work with local communities to address concerns. For the nurses, doctors and support staff who work in the building, the mission remains immediate: delivering potentially life-saving support to those in need.
CNN
11-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Scotland faces up to its drug crisis by offering the UK's first supervised injection facility
In a quiet corner of Glasgow's East End, a radical public health experiment is underway. For the first time in the United Kingdom, people who inject illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine can do so under medical supervision – in a safe environment and indoors. No arrests. No judgment. No questions about where the drugs came from – only how to make their use less deadly. The facility, known as the Thistle, opened in January amid mounting political and public health pressure to confront Scotland's deepening drug crisis. With the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe, Scottish health officials say, there have long been calls for a more pragmatic, compassionate response. Funded by the devolved Scottish government and modelled on more than 100 similar sites across Europe and North America, the pilot safe drug consumption facility marks a significant departure from the UK's traditionally punitive approach to illegal drug use. Dorothy Bain, who heads Scotland's prosecution service and advises the government, told a UK parliamentary committee in May that 'it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of the Glasgow safer drug consumption facility for possession of drugs for personal use.' She added that the approach would be kept under review to ensure it 'is not causing difficulties, raising the risk of further criminality or having an unlawful impact on the community.' Supporters describe it as a long-overdue shift toward harm reduction. Critics warn it risks becoming a place where damaging addiction is maintained, not treated. Located in a low-slung clinical building near the city center, the Thistle is a space where individuals bring their own drugs, prepare them on site, and inject under the watchful eyes of trained staff. The service provides no substances, nor does it allow drug sharing between users. What it offers instead is clean equipment, medical oversight, and a protected environment for a population who might otherwise use in alleyways, public toilets or dumpster sheds, with the associated risks for themselves and the wider community. 'We've had almost 2,500 injections inside the facility,' Dr. Saket Priyadarshi, the clinical lead of the Thistle, told a CNN team who visited the facility in early June. 'That's 2,500 less injections in the community, in parks, alleyways, car parks.' All users must register before receiving support, providing only their initials and date of birth. Staff ask what drugs they plan to use and how. Then, they observe – not intervene – ready to act in the event of an emergency. 'We've had to manage over 30 medical emergencies inside the facility,' Priyadarshi said. 'Some of them were severe overdoses that most likely would have ended in fatalities if we hadn't been able to respond to them immediately here.' Nurses work with patients to reduce harm wherever possible, advising on injection technique, equipment, and vein placement. 'We'll spend a bit of time with them. Just (to) try and get the vein finder working,' said Lynn MacDonald, the service manager at the facility, referring to a handheld device that uses infrared light to illuminate veins beneath the skin. 'People have often learnt technique from other people who are using it and it's not particularly good,' she told CNN. With equipment such as vein finders, she said, the staff at the Thistle are able to highlight 'better' sites of injection to 'reduce harm and make the injection safer.' The Scottish government told CNN that the service has already delivered results in terms of public health. 'Through the ability of staff to respond quickly in the event of an overdose, the Thistle service has already saved lives,' Scottish health secretary Neil Gray said. The service, he said, is 'helping to protect people against blood-borne viruses and taking used needles off the street.' The Thistle bears little resemblance to a medical clinic. There are no fluorescent white lights, no clinical uniforms, and no sterile white rooms. Even the language has been reimagined: users aren't brought into 'interview rooms,' but welcomed into 'chat rooms.' The space itself is soft and deliberate, - furnished with books, jigsaws, warm lighting and a café-style area where people can sit, drink tea, shower, or have their clothes washed. 'The whole service is just designed to that ethos of treating people with a bit of dignity, a bit of respect, bringing them in, making them feel welcome,' Macdonald told CNN. 'We want them to leave knowing somebody cares about them and we're looking forward to seeing them safe and well again.' For Margaret Montgomery, whose son Mark began using heroin at 17, the existence of the Thistle offers a degree of solace that once felt impossible. Now in his fifties, Mark is no longer using – but it took years, and distance, to get there. 'My son went into treatment and it's like six weeks, three months, six months. That's not enough time. There's no aftercare,' Montgomery told CNN. She added that she'd asked her son whether he would have used the Thistle 'all those years ago.' 'He said, 'yes, I probably would have used it because of the other facilities that they're offering in there.'' Mark declined to speak with CNN himself but was happy for his mother to recount his experience. What the Thistle represents, for Montgomery, is not approval – but reprieve. 'Nobody wants to think their children are taking drugs anywhere,' she said. 'There must be parents that are sat out there and they're going, 'well thank god he's going in there and he's doing that in there, not in a bin shed.'' Her support is unflinching – and practical. She is the chairperson of a family support group that was consulted about the Thistle. 'I think the Thistle's the best thing that's happened in Glasgow,' she told CNN. Others see the facility not as an act of compassion, but as a quiet surrender. Annemarie Ward, who has been in recovery for 27 years, believes that without a clear route to abstinence, harm reduction risks becoming a form of institutionalized maintenance. 'Have we given up trying to help people? Are we just trying to maintain people's addictions now?' she told CNN. Ward, who is from Glasgow, is the chief executive of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK (Favor UK), and a campaigning voice for better access and treatment choices for those seeking help with addiction. For Ward, the danger lies not in what the Thistle does, but in what it omits: a vision of freedom from dependency. Without that, she argues, the ethics of such facilities become blurred. 'If our whole system is focused on maintaining people's addiction and not giving them the opportunity to exit that system,' she said, 'I think there's an ethical and moral question that we need to ask.' The Thistle is 'just prolonging the agony of addiction,' she said. 'If you know anybody who's suffered in that way or loved anybody that's suffered that way you would see how inhumane this actually is.' But Glasgow City Council says that the facility is one strand of a broader strategy. The council says that the Thistle does not divert 'from other essential alcohol and drug services in the city,' adding that the local authority 'also invests heavily in treatment and care and recovery services.' 'Comparing these interventions is not helpful,' the council said in a statement. 'All services are equally important – and needed – to allow us to support people who most need them.' The idea itself is not new. The world's first safer drug consumption room opened in Switzerland in 1986 -– a clinical counterpoint to street-level chaos. Since then, the model has spread across Europe, from Portugal and the Netherlands to Germany, Denmark and Spain, and beyond to Canada and New York City. The Thistle, the UK's first iteration, operates 365 days a year, and shares its premises with addiction services and social care teams. As of June, 71.9% of drugs injected inside were cocaine, with heroin making up a further 20%. The users are overwhelmingly male. Most have been injecting for years; all are at risk. Still, resistance remains. CNN spoke to several people in the area who were concerned about the facility's opening and said it had encouraged more drug users to come to the area in the six months since opening. Others, however, told CNN that they had noticed there were fewer needles and less discarded drug paraphernalia on the ground since the clinic opened. Chief Inspector Max Shaw, of Police Scotland, told CNN that the force was 'aware of long-standing issues in the area' and was 'committed to reducing the harm associated with problematic substance use and addiction.' He added that officers would continue to work with local communities to address concerns. For the nurses, doctors and support staff who work in the building, the mission remains immediate: delivering potentially life-saving support to those in need.
