Safe Consumption?

Twelve Step Fellowships often quote the famous saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” As the UK’s first ‘safe’ consumption room opened its doors in Glasgow on January 13th, 2025, it raises a crucial question: will this new initiative in Scotland bring about meaningful change, or will it merely perpetuate the same cycle of drug use and fail to address the ongoing crisis of drug-related deaths? Opinions are divided. As Clyde 1 News reported, some see this as a “radical approach to tackling Scotland’s drug problem,” while others view it as a “palliative care project for people the system has abandoned.”

Anne-Marie Ward, CEO of Faces & Voices of Recovery UK, has been a vocal critic of the consumption room, particularly highlighting the imbalance in funding. She points out that while significant resources are being funnelled into this initiative, funding for rehab beds remains severely limited. Ward argues: “Does it stop people from dying? I don’t think it does. I think it encourages people to continue to harm themselves… I would like to see the money go into services that can help people get their lives back.” She also challenges the lack of recovery pathways within these safe consumption rooms, particularly in Glasgow, where only 23 rehab beds are available for those seeking treatment.

But Ward’s concerns go beyond just the allocation of money—she questions the effectiveness of such initiatives, referencing global evidence. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this approach is the lack of attention paid to the lessons learned from similar consumption rooms worldwide, many of which have rolled back their approach due to disappointing outcomes. In his report on drug policy reform in the Pacific Northwest, Keith Humphrey’s eye-watering read outlines the arguments that were given for safe consumption rooms, and reports on the outcomes: “fatal overdoses soared from San Francisco to Vancouver, treatment services were not expanded, and crime and disorder rose,” which inevitably led to the “public and policymakers turn against the new policy framework and roll it back as fast as it had been implemented.”

At Hope for Addiction UK, we advocate for total abstinence and support harm reduction strategies only if they are part of a broader abstinence-based recovery pathway. While safe consumption rooms aim to provide a controlled and supervised environment for users, with staff available to respond to fatal overdoses, they fall short of offering a sustainable solution to break the cycle of addiction. As members of Twelve Step Fellowships often hear, insanity is repeating destructive behaviours and expecting different results. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that insanity is repeating those same behaviours, while fully aware of the results.