Glasgow is set to launch Scotland’s inaugural local drug-checking facility in October 2026, enabling individuals to submit substances for swift analysis and receive harm-reduction guidance alongside their results.
Rising Drug Deaths Prompt New Measures
The announcement comes as drug use deaths in Scotland rose by 11% in 2025. The total reached 1,133. This is 116 more deaths than in 2024 and marks the sixth-highest year on record. The rate is 21.4 deaths per 100,000 people. That figure is four times the rate recorded in 2000 when current records began.
The Scottish government has invested more than £1.7m in the drug-checking pilot programme. Three more such services are planned across the country. Aberdeen and Dundee have already received Home Office licences for similar services. A fourth facility in Edinburgh is preparing its licence application.
How the New Service Will Work
Samples taken at the Glasgow site will be sent to a new national testing laboratory. The lab is hosted by the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee. The service will be restricted to people aged over 18 who are dependent on illicit drugs.
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Scottish drugs minister Maree Todd, a hospital pharmacist, said the service would help people “make safer decisions.” She added it was “particularly important in light of the current dangers posed by new synthetic opioids like nitazenes.” These drugs raise the risk of overdose and death.
The NRS figures showed nitazenes were implicated in 247 drug deaths in 2025. Etonitazene was the most common nitazene, linked to 215 deaths. Opiates or opioids, cocaine, and benzodiazepines remained the drugs most commonly implicated in deaths. A combination of drugs was involved in 78% of all cases.
The figures also showed a 23% increase in deaths involving cocaine in 2025 compared to 2024. Separate data from Glasgow’s safer drug consumption site, The Thistle, showed cocaine use fell over time. In July 2026, it accounted for 54% of substances injected, down from 81% in January. Heroin use rose from 10% to 28% over the same period.
Barry Chapman, of the Scottish Specialist Pharmacists group, said the rising death rates show a “central feature of drug-related harm in Scotland.” He noted the rates are 15 times higher in the most deprived communities. He called community pharmacy teams “a vital part of the public health response.”