SCOTLAND'S drug death figures "would've been worse" without The Thistle consumption facility, John Swinney has said.
At First Minister's Questions on Thursday, Swinney responded to concerns from all party leaders who grilled him about the latest figures, which show drug deaths up 11%.
Conservative leader Russell Findlay asked if the government would stop funding services like The Thistle, a drug consumption unit based in Glasgow city centre. It's a service which has attended to 195 "medical emergencies" since opening.
Scotland has seen a surge in synthetic opioid use, and nitazene-related deaths were found to have more than trebled from the previous year.
Findlay said: "Once again Scotland has the worst drug deaths in Europe, 1133 deaths, 1133 lives tragically cut short. The SNP's multi-million-pound drug consumption unit opened in Glasgow at the start of last year.
"John Swinney says there is significant evidence that it's saving lives, but the evidence actually shows that Glasgow drug deaths have gone up in that time. And nearby residents must live with the discarded needles and the drug crime.
"Despite this, another unit is planned for Edinburgh. So why won't John Swinney listen to the evidence, respect the evidence, stop the drug consumption units and instead spend that money on rehab?"
Responding to the question, the First Minister said the Tory leader was "plain wrong" and explained the work that the facility does to both attend to incidents and signpost to other organisations.
He said: "The staff in The Thistle have responded to 195 medical emergencies in support of individuals. I understand Russell Finlay's concern about the drug deaths in Glasgow, but they would've been worse if The Thistle had not intervened to support people in relation to their drug use."
He said the unit had made around 612 referrals to wider support services, including housing, alcohol, accommodation, drug recovery services and bloodborne virus services.
Continuing, Swinney added: "That is the absolute purpose of The Thistle. It is to provide person-centred care at the heart of tackling addiction, and I think it is demonstrating important learning for us, and I'm glad that we have been able to take forward The Thistle.
"I'm grateful to the former Lord Advocate for the consideration she gave to this issue to enable us to have another intervention to try to avoid a difficult and serious situation in relation to drug deaths becoming more acute than it would be without The Thistle."
