Opening day visits to UK's first drugs consumption room hit double figures
Bosses have said people returned multiple times throughout the day to inject illegal drugs including cocaine and heroin
Bosses behind the UK's first drugs consumption room have said the number of people visiting on its opening day were "well into the double figures".
The Thistle Centre officially opened to the public in Glasgow's east end on Monday 13 January 2025, allowing people to inject illegal drugs, like cocaine and heroin, under medical supervision.
READ MORE: UK's first safe drugs consumption room opens in Glasgow
The £2.3million facility aims to reduce drug-related harms, including fatal and non fatal overdoses, public drug-use and needle littering.
'People came back more than once'
While the specific number of visitors have not been revealed, Clyde 1 understands people returned multiple times throughout the day to inject illegal substances.
Glasgow City Council's convenor for addiction services, Councillor Allan Casey, said this is an indication that the service is working as planned.
He said: "We are day one into the Thistle service, and we're really pleased about how that day went.
"We were well into double figures of people using the service, so we're happy we've been able to make the case for people to come along and use the service as we'd hoped for.
"I think it was quite quiet at the start, but as the day went on, it definitely picked up and indeed, some people were coming back more than once, so that shows you they felt they were getting a good service.
"Importantly, some of those folk who had come along were people we've never engaged with - and that's a promising sign that we're engaging with the hardest to reach people in the city."
READ MORE: FIRST LOOK: Inside the UK's only safe drugs consumption room
He added: "It was quite hard to anticipate how many people would come through the doors on the first day, we weren't sure how it'd go.
"There may have been a bit of distrust, with people not knowing if this was actually real, but now they've been in and used it, know they can use it safely, it gives people confidence that they can come back.
"It takes that chaos away from where they've been injecting before, like public parks, back alleys, really dirty spaces that brings huge amount of risk to those using."
Hear the latest news on Clyde 1 on FM, DAB, smart speaker or the Rayo app.