Gray says Glaswegians are not spreading misinformation on drug consumption room

Scotland’s Health Secretary has said he does not believe Glasgow residents are spreading misinformation about the city’s safer drug consumption room.

Neil Gray’s comments appear to contradict an official briefing prepared for him before a Scottish Affairs Committee appearance on Scotland’s drugs death rate – the highest in Europe.

The internal paper, first reported in The Herald newspaper, stated that colleagues in the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership, jointly run by the local council and NHS board to deliver health services in the city, had concerns about community meetings opposed to The Thistle.

The briefing said local health leaders believed “a lot of the information” shared at the meetings was “incorrect”. It added that claims made by those at the events were “stoking ill-feeling in the community”.

According to the briefing, they believed the meetings were “orchestrated” by people who were “always opposed” to the drug consumption room and that “prior to now, have never had any interest or engagement in the Calton area”.

Since its opening at the start of the year, some residents have expressed concerns about what they say is a rise in anti-social behaviour and discarded needles in nearby streets.

Speaking to the PA news agency after a healthcare conference at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Mr Gray said The Thistle was introduced in the east end because “public drug consumption was happening in those areas already”.

He said the centre had “demonstrably” saved lives and added that the Scottish Government was determined to see that public drug usage and disregarded paraphernalia is reduced.

Asked if he believed residents in Glasgow’s east end were spreading misinformation around The Thistle, he said: “I’ve never said that.”

“No,” he added, “I don’t believe that they are. I think that there is a challenge within the east end of Glasgow, as there are in other communities across Scotland, of public usage of drug paraphernalia.

“We want to see that reduced. We want to have a harm reduction approach to ensure that people have a route into a recovery from their substance dependency and to ensure that we can save lives and address the public health crisis that is under way, and we are seeing improvements in that regard.”

Mr Gray pointed to figures released in September which showed a 13% fall in drug deaths in 2024 from “far too high a level”.

He said the Government is investing to combat drug misuse, including through new drug checking facilities, increasing residential rehab, the rollout of naloxone, and The Thistle centre – the first of its kind in the UK.

“That is what is being addressed by this Government to ensure that people, not just in the east end of Glasgow but across Scotland, can see a reduction in drug use and a reduction in drug-related deaths,” he added.