Health Secretary Neil Gray said if the centre was successful he believed it could be replicated across Scotland and the UK.
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The facility will be supported with £2 million of Scottish Government cash each year, with three years’ worth of funding behind the pilot.
Officially known as The Thistle, drug users will be able to self-administer substances they bring with them – such as cocaine or heroin – under the supervision of nurses.
They will be provided with a clean needle, syringe, acid, antiseptic swabs, water and a spoon.
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times)
They will have access to a recovery area where their blood pressure, oxygen levels and pulse rate can be monitored, before exiting through to the lounge where they can get hot drinks and snacks.
The centre was established after Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, made clear prosecuting users of such a facility for possession of drugs would not be in the public interest.
Scotland has the highest drugs death rate in Europe, with the most recent figures showing that 1,172 people died in 2023, a 12% increase on the previous year.
“I think it will contribute towards reducing drugs deaths in Scotland,” the First Minister said while speaking to journalists in the facility’s lounge on Friday morning “It will provide clinical support and safety support to people who are going to inject drugs, and therefore the risks of so doing will be reduced by being here.
“But also, and I think you can see this from exactly where we’re sitting,I think the environment here will make a constructive contribution to helping individuals to choose a different pathway and to be supported in a different pathway as a consequence.”
“I wouldn’t present this as a silver bullet,” he added. “This is one of a number of steps that we have to take as part of our national mission on drugs, and it’s got a contribution to make.
“I think the evidence from international examples is positive, and expert advice suggests that this is an intervention that is worth undertaking, so I am very keen to make sure that happens.
“I think a lot of good work has been done by the City of Glasgow to get into this position, but we have to be mindful of the importance of taking a range of different interventions to address the situation.”
Mr Gray told PA that if the pilot centre is successful, “I expect not just to see other facilities in Scotland, but I would expect to see them elsewhere in the UK as well”.
He added: “I hope that this will be another tool in our box in reducing the harm and reducing the level of drug-related deaths that we see in Scotland, and that the pilot will be successful.
“Critically I want this to be a facility that is well used. I want there to be a confidence in the community about coming here.
“I think the warm welcome that people are given, the dignity and the compassion that is at the heart of the service here, I hope will mean that this is a well used service that can help give people another route, another road into recovery.”
He had earlier insisted that “worldwide evidence demonstrates that drug consumption facilities can help save and improve lives”.
Mr Gray also thanked all those involved in “getting this life-saving service up and running for their hard work”.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton urged SNP ministers to roll out a “nationwide network of safe consumption rooms” sooner rather than later.
He said: “When almost 100 Scots are dying every month from drugs – a death rate far worse than anywhere else in Europe – the priority must be saving lives.
“These centres are proven to keep people safe and support them into recovery. That is why this pilot should herald the first of many more consumption facilities across the country.
“If we are to end the untold suffering caused by the drug deaths crisis, help cannot be limited to Glasgow.
“My party want to see the Scottish Government rolling out a nationwide network of safe consumption rooms, new drug-checking facilities and giving people who are misusing drugs treatment instead of prison.”
While Scottish Labour backed the pilot, it warned more needs to be done to tackle drugs deaths in Scotland.
Health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “While we welcome any attempt to reduce the number of drugs deaths in Glasgow, it’s clear that this pilot is a drop in the ocean when it comes to tackling a national public health emergency.
“Each of those 6,000 deaths since 2019 represents an individual tragedy and a family ripped apart on the SNP’s watch.
“The SNP must provide the support charities, local authorities and health workers need to provide a clear, accessible pathway out of addiction for those who are in the grip of substance abuse.
“A crisis on this scale requires a response of the same proportions — it’s up to the SNP to deliver it.