Step inside the UK’s first legal safer drug consumption room. In Drugreporter’s new video, Lynn MacDonald, service manager at The Thistle, takes us through a space built not only for life-saving safer use, but for compassion, dignity, and respect — putting care and humanity at the center of the service.
Scotland
#STOPTHEDEATHS Conference 2025 – Selected Sessions on Video
Explore key speeches and sessions recorded at the Scottish Drugs Forum’s annual conference in Glasgow.
STOP THE DEATHS – Uniting Against Preventable Overdoses in Scotland
Scotland continues to face some of the highest drug-related death rates in Europe. The Scottish Drugs Forum Stop the Deaths conference in Glasgow brings together people who have lived this reality from every angle — families, frontline workers, people with lived and living experience, policymakers, and activists — to confront the scale of the emergency and demand meaningful change. Watch Drugreporter’s short documentary, filmed at this landmark event!
Navigating Tensions and Contradictions
INPUD organised a session during the 67th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, titled: “Navigating Tensions and Contradictions: addressing human rights challenges related to the lack of, and the unequal access to, treatment and harm reduction.” You can watch the full session here!
A Celebration of Scotland’s Indigenous Apothecary
Drugreporter produced a new documentary, titled “Psychedelics in Scotland” on the struggle to liberate psychedelic medicine in Scotland. In the film, people with lived experience provide testimony on the healing powers of psychedelic drugs. We produced additional films as well at the 3 day long event on cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms, as well as other healing plants indigenous to Scotland.
Investing in People, Not Jails: Drug Policy Reform in Scotland
Scotland is a textbook case of how the toxic combination of growing social exclusion and poverty, the diversification of drug markets, and repressive, abstinence-only drug policies can lead to a deadly drug overdose epidemic. A new paper published by the Scottish government gives us hope that the country can now set an example to other states on how to give a compassionate and pragmatic response to the crisis.
