For seven days in June, cameras followed the streets at the heart of Scotland’s biggest city, and what they captured has reignited debate about the scale of the Glasgow drug crisis. Open drug deals, brutal assaults and racially charged clashes all played out within sight of Central Station, the very spot where most visitors get their first glimpse of the city.

Social media has been flooded with footage from the area, with some users claiming parts of the city centre have become a no go zone, unsafe for anyone walking through alone, particularly women. Angry protests have followed. So the BBC spent a week filming there to see what was really happening.

Streets on Edge

Locals describe scenes far removed from a typical night in the city. A taxi driver who regularly drives through the area compared it to a zombie apocalypse, saying so many people were under the influence that it was hard to tell who needed help and who posed a danger.

Police figures obtained through freedom of information requests show more than 400 violent assaults took place last year alone in the main streets and square at the heart of what is now called the dispersal zone, an area around St Enoch Square and the Four Corners where officers can issue notices temporarily banning troublemakers from the area.

Since the zone was introduced in March, more than 1,500 notices have been handed out. Yet residents and shopkeepers say the drug problem in Glasgow shows little sign of easing. People simply move a few streets over once they are told to leave, only to return once the notice expires.

Dealing in Plain Sight

On Union Street, right in the middle of the dispersal zone, convenience store manager Faisal Umar says he faces racist abuse at least twenty times a day and watches his shop targeted again and again by people struggling with addiction.

Police figures show almost 2,800 crimes have been recorded on that single street since 2023. Umar says dealers deliberately use children too young to be charged with possession, a tactic confirmed by PC Steven Gemmell, who told the BBC that young runners often hide wraps of drugs in their mouths to avoid arrest, swallowing them the moment officers approach.

It is a grim illustration of how entrenched the Glasgow drug crisis has become, reaching down to children who are being exploited rather than helped.

Vigilantes and Rising Tension

Frustration on the streets has given rise to groups like Scots Active, whose masked members patrol the city centre insisting they are protecting women and families. Its leader, Darren Docherty, accuses what he calls “new people” of openly dealing drugs, though he does not specify who he means.

Critics call the group racist and far right. Footage has also emerged of Docherty describing hitting a police officer during a protest, which he told the BBC was self defence.

The presence of vigilante patrols alongside police officers has added another layer of tension to a city centre already struggling with the drug problem in Glasgow and everything that comes with it.

Protests and Public Anger

During filming, a masked mob rampaged through the city following a stabbing in Belfast linked to a Sudanese suspect. Days later, thousands marched against racism, only for a smaller group of anti immigration demonstrators, some performing Nazi style salutes, to clash with police nearby.

Chief Inspector Stephen McManus of Police Scotland admits racial tension has become a bigger part of daily policing, describing a level of intolerance creeping into protest that was not there before.

Fear on the Streets

Six serious sexual assaults were reported in Glasgow city centre during the three months filming took place. Scottish government figures show reported rapes, attempted rapes and sexual assaults across the city have risen by eleven per cent over the past five years.

Ethnicity was recorded in 113 of the 170 rapes reported in Glasgow, with 89 suspects listed as white and 24 as Asian, African or from another ethnic group.

One woman, given the name Zoe to protect her identity, was sexually harassed on a bus and says she is wary of those using such crimes to stoke division. She believes some campaigners care less about protecting women than about stirring up anger.

A City Trying to Cope

Police Scotland says high visibility patrols and a dedicated weekend policing plan are helping manage demand, while Glasgow City Council points to new investment in CCTV monitoring across the centre.

But for shopkeepers, taxi drivers and residents living alongside the Glasgow drug crisis every day, enforcement alone may not be enough. Many believe lasting change will only come from tackling the addiction and exploitation fuelling the chaos, rather than simply pushing the problem from one street to the next.

Source: dbrecoveryresources