Let’s wait for report on safe drug room - Joanna Mowat

The Thistle SDCR was opened in Glasgow in January 2025 and the Scottish Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament published a report into its set up in September 2025.

Joanna Mowat is Conservative councillor for City Centre Ward and in the running to step into Ruth Davidson's shoes

This report is clear that the opening of the Thistle is a trial established under a precarious legal position and that it was to be independently reviewed after three years.

The independence of any review is extremely important – it seems clear to me from the Report that those who have advocated strongly for the Thistle are dismissive of community concerns.

The report is also clear that the rationale for establishing a SDCR has been subject to a degree of confusion about the purpose and possible outcomes.

The impact of the SDCR is limited to a small area, a 10-minute pull factor, so its impact will be limited. The purpose is to address public drug taking and in Glasgow it is unclear how much difference to discarded needles in the street it has made.

The cost of the Thistle is £2.3 million per year – and it is likely that Edinburgh’s will cost the same. This is a lot of money to find when rehabilitation services have been cut and people are struggling to get onto programmes.

At the moment we have anecdote and positive comments from people who supported the set up of the Thistle. There are criticisms from local residents who have said that complaints are not addressed outside of meetings and that they have stopped reporting crimes as they can’t get through to the Police on 101.

Until the independent report into the Thistle is published it is impossible to work out whether this is an effective spend of £2.3m a year and what the impact on the local community has been.

Until we have this report we shouldn’t be asking the question of whether a SDCR is right for Edinburgh.