00:00It's been four years since then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called Scotland's drug deaths
00:06problem a public health emergency.
00:10Almost 5,000 people have lost their lives to it since then.
00:14The signs of this crisis are strewn across Glasgow's parks and alleyways.
00:19Scotland's largest city is Europe's drug death capital.
00:23But it's about to experiment with one possible solution.
00:28Today, First Minister John Swinney arrived at the Thistle Drug Consumption Room, one
00:33mile from the city centre.
00:35When it opens on Monday, it will be the first and only place in the UK where people will
00:41be able to take drugs without fear of arrest.
00:44Clean needles will be available and NHS staff will be on hand to respond to overdoses.
00:50In the nature of the scale of the challenge that we face and the need to achieve more
00:57for people means that that tenacity is ever more important and precious.
01:02So thank you for getting us to this point.
01:06Centres such as these have been set up in Canada, Australia and across Europe, including
01:11this one here in Denmark.
01:13It's been running for just over a decade.
01:16In that time, needle sharing has almost been eradicated and the country's HIV rates have
01:21dropped to one of the lowest in the world.
01:25Then there's KNIRF, Platform 9, which has been operating in Geneva for over 20 years.
01:31So saving lives was the obvious one, reduction in HIV transmission and all of the rest.
01:36So that's one element of success.
01:38It's a pragmatic approach.
01:41It's one that there is a problem.
01:42People will always be using drugs.
01:44So it's recognising that and creating this space where then people can speak, they can
01:49talk, they can potentially go into treatment as well if they need that.
01:54Back in Glasgow, just a short distance from the clinic.
01:58I am 42 years of age.
02:00I've been taking drugs for 30 odd years.
02:03Heroin destroyed my life, it destroyed my leg.
02:06Billy is part of a demographic the Thistle is trying to reach, but he says he doesn't
02:11see himself going there.
02:13You want to take your drugs as soon as you get them.
02:15That's what I'm saying.
02:16You won't come all the way up here once you've scored in City Centre and want to use a consumption room.
02:21OK, so if you come through here, but watch your feet.
02:23There's a lot of uncapped needles lying in the ground.
02:26John Campbell works for the NHS, providing clean equipment to drug users.
02:31He backs the new consumption room as a tool to try and reduce harm, but, like Billy, believes
02:37its reach will be limited.
02:38I think people will choose to use the facility.
02:41Other ones will have to be encouraged to use the facility, but we know it's unlikely that
02:46people will travel some distance.
02:49The Thistle will run as a three-year pilot to see what difference it makes to Glasgow's
02:53most at-risk people.
02:56It won't be a panacea to the public health emergency, but it offers an alternative to
03:00this and represents a step in the right direction.
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