Glasgow Safer Drug Consumption Facility

Adam Jogee Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Patricia Ferguson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. She is absolutely right: it cannot be one thing or another. A holistic attitude must be taken towards eradicating drug misuse. Given Scotland’s particular situation, we have to be open to considering any and all options. But recovery facilities are certainly vital.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend and her Committee for this important report. The effects of drug addiction and misuse hit communities hard in Scotland, as we have heard, but also in Newcastle-under-Lyme and elsewhere in Staffordshire. I think of the work of Paul Sweeney MSP on the ground in Glasgow; he has done much on these important issues.

There are often enhanced challenges around the stigma of drugs in religious and ethnic minority communities. Will my hon. Friend touch on what the outreach at Thistle looked like for those furthest-to-reach communities? That will be particularly important for my constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme, as the Government learn the lessons.

[Patricia Ferguson]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. We did not look closely into that issue; if someone is going to inject drugs, they will buy them and take them almost immediately, so the reach of the Thistle will never be much further than the localised community around the building. For that reason, we have not looked at the issue in the way that he suggests. It will be interesting to see from the evaluation whether there has been more of a reach than was imagined at the beginning, when the facility was being scoped. But that is certainly not the experience that people have had until now.