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Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark visits The Thistle drug consumption facility in Glasgow<\/p>\nFormer New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark – a drugs policy reformer – has told of inevitable rise of nitazenes, more than 100 times stronger than heroin.Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark visits The Thistle drug consumption facility in Glasgow<\/p>\n
Scotland is facing an unprecedented rush of AI-designed<\/a> and super-strength synthetic drugs that could ramp up our appalling death rate even further.<\/p>\n The chilling warning was issued in Glasgow by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark,<\/a> now chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.<\/p>\n Clark, who was visiting the UK\u2019s first legal drugs consumption room <\/a>in the city, said drugs can now be produced on 3D printers,<\/a> making detection and enforcement even harder for police forces, which are already failing spectacularly to break down supply chains.<\/p>\n And the dogged campaigner for drug policy reform said she has been briefed on the inevitability of a reshaping of drug supplies that will include more deadly fentanyl and nitazenes<\/a>, which are many times stronger than heroin and already being sold on Scottish streets.<\/p>\n She believes that drug checking<\/a> facilities are urgently needed and that greater moves should be made to educate drug users on the huge risk of death by dabbling with new substances.<\/p>\n Clark said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had up to date briefings at our Global Commission meeting in London with experts who are telling us that they think we\u2019re coming to the end of a plant based substance use pattern.<\/p>\n \u201cThe use is moving to synthetics, like fentanyl, which is far more potent than heroin. And nitazenes, which are more potent again.<\/p>\n \u201cThis raises the very real prospect that the drug death rate could accelerate again, even in Scotland.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the drug death rate statistics, and you put the UK population in the rest of the European Union, the UK deaths are making up 40% I mean, this is incredible. It\u2019s absolutely extraordinary.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the picture could certainly get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark said the dawning of AI platforms like ChatGPT could bring a new realm of danger.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cIf you ask GPT ask it to design you something, it will. AI is not just used by ordinary people, it can be a resource for criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n And she said that the use of perfectrly legals chemicals in the creation of deadly drugs will make it impossible for police to get ahead of the gangs and smaller manufacturers who will target vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cYou can outlaw get heroin and cocaine and the rest of it, but the precursors of some of the synthetics are so widely used for multiple use, an interdiction policy has almost no meaning.<\/p>\n \u201cA banning policy has no meaning because the compound will change tomorrow.<\/p>\n \u201cSo law enforcement has an impossible task.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark said a massive public health response is the only way to combat the rise of the new drugs.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cI am aware that this facility in Glasgow has applied to the Home Office for a drug testing licence. We need these to be the norm across towns and cities in Scotland and other nations.<\/p>\n \u201cI am aware that at The Thistle centre there has been 39 medical emergencies on the six months it has been operating and that tells us there is a need for drug testing.<\/p>\n \u201cUsers don\u2019t want to die. They want to know what they are taking and they want to know they are not taking stuff laced with fentanyl of nitazenes.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark said New Zealand was the first nation in the world to legally allow all drug testing.<\/p>\n Glowing tributes were made to campaigner Peter Krykant, who launched hi sown mobile drugs van to force political action on Scotland\u2019s drug deaths.<\/p>\n Dad of two Krykant, 48, died suddenly last month after battling relapse for his own addiction.<\/p>\n He took the bold decision to defy UK law and run his own safe drug space for injecting addicts in Glasgow.<\/p>\n Operating from a converted former ambulance, Krykant drove from his home in Falkirk and dealt with users that include some clients of The Thistle today.<\/p>\n Helen Clark added: \u201cWhen I heard of Peter\u2019s death I was really shattered. I became aware of his efforts because I was chair of the Global Commission on Drugs Policy and I was noticing what was happening in Scotland.<\/p>\n \u201cI was aware of his courage in getting out there in the van, being hassled by police.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a pioneer and when came here two years ago, he was at our meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved meeting him, so I\u2019m shattered by what\u2019s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Councillor Allan Casey, city convener for addictions, said: \u201cPeter Krykant was a trailblazer and although Glasgow City Council was determined to open this facility, Peter humanised the debate and won over many people along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cHis contribution cannot be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cWe do the festivals, street corners, wherever. Everyone\u2019s entitled to have the drugs tested. That\u2019s where Scotland and the UK needs to be.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need more of these kinds of facilities in other Scottish cities, with more research and effective antidotes to the new drugs coming onto the market.<\/p>\n \u201cWe already have Naloxone and it does quite well for the plant based substances, but we\u2019re getting into new territory with synthetics.<\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be more research also on the substitution therapies because while methadone can work for opioids, it doesn\u2019t necessarily do it doesn\u2019t do it for the methamphetamine and othjer drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s really digging into what are going to be the ingredients of a really successful harm reduction approach, because the thought that you\u2019re going to stop people using drugs, human beings have always used drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy do people have a drink at a party? What they have tobacco in the trenches of World War One that spread through society?<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as we have people who have a requirement to be transported out of their reality we will not be able to stop it, so we have to be prepared to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s new drug policy minister Maree Todd, a qualified mental health pharmacist, said the benefits of The Thistle were demonsrated when a wave of contaminated drugs hots Scottish streets earlier this year.<\/p>\n And she said that spreading word on contaminated os extremely dangerous drugs is crucial.<\/p>\n Todd said: \u201cVery profoundly unwell people here in this facility had their lives saved by the staff when contaminated drugs were used all over Scotland.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can be fairly confident that there was a life saving intervention. We were able to pick up that knowledge and feed it into the public health Radar system in Scotland and disseminate the word that there were contaminated drugs on the street, which made things safer for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n The Thistle, opened after years of controversial political and legal wrangling, claims to have helped more than 300 addicts in the past six months.<\/p>\n Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.<\/p>\n You’ll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.<\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS374248870.jpg\")
Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark visits The Thistle drug consumption facility in Glasgow, along with commissioner Michel Kazatchkine & Councillor Allan Casey<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3_Mephedrone.jpg\")
New drugs are compact and super-strength<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS227079226.jpg\")
Warm tributes for tragic drugs crusader Peter Krykant<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS374248647.jpg\")
Helen Clark<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_JS374248867.jpg\")
Maree Todd at The Thistle drug consumption facility in Glasgow <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_WACOMMUNITYQR3.jpg\")
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