Scotland proposes drug decriminalisation in Westminster challenge

[Simple Jack]

Scotland proposes drug decriminalisation in Westminster challenge

Elena Whitham, Scotland’s minister for drugs policy, calls for legislation devolution in reform plan. The Scottish government is challenging Westminster to decriminalise all drugs for personal use, in a fresh attempt to tackle Scotland’s chronically high drug death rates.

Introducing a new paper on reform, Scotland’s drugs and alcohol policy minister, Elena Whitham, described the proposals as “ambitious and radical, grounded in evidence, that will help save lives”.

But Downing Street immediately dismissed the Scottish government’s calls to overhaul or devolve the legislation, which is reserved to Westminster, with the prime minister’s official spokesperson saying that Rishi Sunak had no plans to alter his “tough stance” on drugs.

Less than an hour later, Labour likewise poured cold water on the proposals. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said during a visit to Hamilton, near Glasgow, that an incoming Labour government would not decriminalise drug supply or possession.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, who was accompanying Reeves, said Scotland had exactly the same drug misuse laws as the rest of the UK yet its drug death figures were three times higher.

“It’s [the Scottish government’s] cuts to alcohol and drug health partnerships, it’s their cuts to rehabilitation beds, it’s the failure to properly invest in mental health services,” he said.

Flanked by two former premiers, Helen Clark of New Zealand and Ruth Dreifuss of Switzerland, both now members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which is holding its annual meeting in Edinburgh, Whitham said decriminalisation was “no longer a novel approach” but in force “across the world and works well”.

Whitham added: “If you push people who are using drugs to the margins, that’s when bad things happen to people. If you actually allow people to have all of the information that they need, based firmly within a harm reduction model, people are going to come to less serious harm.”

 

Pointing out that Westminster’s drugs legislation is now 50 years old, she said: “We need a 21st-century framework to build around a public health approach.”

She said the new plan was “absolutely not a deflection” from the continuing work, funded by an investment of £250m across the life of the parliament, to ensure people can access “the treatment that works for them, from harm reduction to abstinence-based recovery”.

However, a source close to the home secretary, said: “Illegal drugs destroy lives and communities. The Scottish National party’s proposals are irresponsible and would do untold damage to our neighbourhoods.

“This government’s focus is on protecting people and preventing lives from being ruined – we’ve absolutely no intention of decriminalising illegal drug use.”

Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe, and five times the rate in England. Campaigners denounced a “massive accountability gap” around quality and availability of services.

Whitham said the proposals were being shown to the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain, who two years ago proposed what was then described as de facto decriminalisation, when she gave Scottish police discretion to issue a warning to individuals caught in possession of class A drugs rather than them facing prosecution.

Whitham said she was not aware of any evaluation of that previous guidance, but diversion from prosecution was very different from decriminalisation.

Asked what she would do if the UK government rejected the proposal, she said: “If the UK government fails to move forward with this policy paper with us and refuses to devolve the powers to us, then I need to take a position at that point to figure out what do we do next for Scotland in terms of drugs laws.”

Other proposals outlined in a new paper include immediate legislative changes to allow Scotland to fully implement harm reduction measures such as supervised drug consumption facilities, drug checking, and increased access to the lifesaving drug naloxone, which counters the effects of opioids in overdose scenarios.

Although the spirit of the proposals was welcomed by those working with addicts, the chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum, Kirsten Horsburgh, told the Guardian that the Scottish government “doesn’t have to wait for permission in a public health emergency to make change. I would like to see them being more bold to save lives.”

Horsburgh also said Scotland had already developed innovative responses to the current crisis using its own legal system, the police force, and health service.

“Progress has already been made in terms of the extension of recorded warnings for drug possession, policing arrangements and the legal basis for injecting equipment provision services and its world-leading take-home naloxone programme,” she said.

She said Scotland could use existing powers to deliver supervised drug consumption rooms and drug-checking services “as a matter of urgency”.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/07/scotland-proposes-drug-decriminalisation-in-westminster-challenge

[GreenVision]

34 minutes ago, Simple Jack said:

decriminalise all drugs

 

Would be a hell of party for sure, but TBH

 

 

DECRIMINALISNG CANNABIS WILL FUCKING DO!

 

Waited long enough to have a spliff at a BBQ without the risk of some newb copper jumping over the fence like a scene from bad boys.

[Pepe Ramon]

There's too much money being made by the folks who own all the medical growing facilities in the U.K. and some of those folks have votes in the House...

Edited July 9, 2023 by Arbre Medicinal

[monkeypig]

And, let's be frank - decriminalisation is not enough - it fails to deal with the supply side. Full legalisation of all drugs is the only way to go.  Clean pure taxed pharmaceutical grade drugs please.

[Cambium]

1 hour ago, monkeypig said:

And, let's be frank - decriminalisation is not enough - it fails to deal with the supply side. Full legalisation of all drugs is the only way to go.  Clean pure taxed pharmaceutical grade drugs please.

 

From gov.scot

 

Quote

Potential for Strict Regulated Supply

Decriminalisation for personal supply, as with prohibition, provides no additional control over the market and essentially continues to leave it in the hands of organised crime. It continues to provide revenue to fund other illegal activity, further driving violence and crime in our communities. It also accepts that there can be no quality or safety controls on the substances people are consuming, something we simply wouldn’t accept with other, legal and regulated harmful products like alcohol or tobacco.

 

While we do not currently advocate for this policy, implementing a more evidence-based approach to drugs policy could be the basis for considering the potential of introducing regulated markets for the reduction of harm and the safe control of substances. This could be supported by a Citizens’ Assembly to consider the evidence and give a perspective from a representative sample of the public. This would enable a mature, informed conversation about the level of regulation and control that we as a society are comfortable with for substances, based on an expert assessment of their relative harms.

 

A debate of this kind could consider the many ways in which substances could be regulated, including licensed sales, expanded pharmacy provision or state run monopolies and the means for achieving this. Which measures are most appropriate for which drug should be determined by the evidence. A considered, methodical and cautious approach would be essential. In Canada’s regulated cannabis market a staged approach was taken, introducing new products slowly over time.[87] Starting with strict regulation allows for the possibility for later easing, if and when evidence and evaluation proves that it is safe to do so.

 

Other themes to explore include what can be learned from regulatory measures in existing markets of legal substances. These could include age restrictions and laws to prevent driving under the influence, requiring strict enforcement to prevent harms. Measures like price controls, proven effective with Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol[88],[89], regulation of advertising, branding and sponsorship, and providing consumers with accurate information on the effects, preparation, storage, side effects, risks and where to access support.[90],[91] Legislation would of course be needed to control and monitor the production, supply, sale and consumption of newly regulated substances.

 

The war on drugs and the UK’s approach has disproportionately criminalised minority ethnic communities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.[92] If the decision was made to move towards strict regulated supply then a debate could examine steps to redress the harms of punitive prohibition, potentially including measures to expunge relevant criminal convictions

 

[redbeard]

UK police out in extreme force for drugs bust.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/yXakVt-67w8?feature=share

 

Word has it they got a £10 baggie