UK to open its first safe drug consumption room amid soaring deaths

There are more than 100 safe consumption facilities across the world and none has ever recorded a death. Photograph: Rita Franca/The Guardian

The UK’s first official facility for consuming illegal drugs opens in Glasgow within a month, a move that experts and campaigners hope will bring major changes to drug policy.

The pioneering “safer drug consumption facility”, named the Thistle, was due to open on Hunter Street, in the city’s east end, earlier this year but was delayed by building tests.