Welcome to the Thistle - the UK's first and only drug consumption room. After nearly a decade of deadlock and wrangling over drug laws the centre is finally ready to open. On Monday it will welcome its first clients who will come in to inject illegally-bought heroin or cocaine under medical supervision.

The UK’s first safer drugs consumption room will open in Scotland in an effort to tackle the country’s major drugs problem. The Thistle Centre, in Glasgow ’s east end, will allow addicts to take drugs – including heroin – under supervision in a clean and hygienic environment, with help on hand if they suffer an overdose.

The Thistle drug consumption room - the first of its kind in the UK - will open in Glasgow on Monday in a bid to drive down Scotland's drug deaths rate

In a few days, the UK’s first drug consumption room will open its doors in Glasgow. The centre, known as ‘The Thistle’, will provide a clean place for people to inject drugs under medical supervision. Scotland’s death rate from drugs is the worst in Europe, with over a thousand dying in 2023, and the aim is to reduce fatal overdoses.