To address Scotland’s soaring drug-related mortality rates, the Scottish government has issued a challenge to Westminster to decriminalize all narcotics for private consumption.
The Scottish Minister for Drug and Alcohol Policy, Elena Whitham, presented a new report on reforms and referred to it as “ambitious and radical, grounded in evidence that will help save lives.”
However, Downing Street swiftly declined the Scottish government’s demands to overhaul Westminster-reserved laws, stating that, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had no intentions to soften his “tough stance” on drugs.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stated during a trip to Hamilton that, a new Labour administration would not decriminalize drug possession or supply.
Despite having exactly the same drug abuse legislation as the rest of the UK, Scotland’s drug related fatalities, have been threefold greater, according to Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader.
“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.”
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader.
Decriminalization is “no longer a novel approach” but was instead in place “across the world and works well,” Whitham said.
“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.”
Elena Whitham, Scottish Minister for Drug and Alcohol Policy.
She noted that, the drug laws in Westminster are already 50 years old and explained that, “We need a 21st-century framework to build around a public health approach.”
The new approach, according to her, is “absolutely not a deflection” from the ongoing efforts to ensure people can receive “the treatment that works for them, from harm reduction to abstinence-based recovery,” which have been supported by an expenditure of £250 million.
“Illegal drugs destroy lives and communities,” a source close to the home secretary warned. It called the Scottish National Party’s proposals foolish and would do irreparable harm to our communities. “This government’s focus is on protecting people and preventing lives from being ruined, we’ve absolutely no intention of decriminalizing illegal drug use,” the source revealed.
Five times higher than England’s rate, Scotland has the most drug-related mortality rates of any nation in Europe. Advocates have criticized the “massive accountability gap” about the standard and accessibility of services.
Whitham acknowledged that, she was unaware of any examination of the preceding advice, but noted that, decriminalization and prosecution diversion were two quite distinct things.
When asked what would be done if the UK government declined to accept the proposal, Whitham responded that, “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.”
In recent report, several recommendations were made, such as quick legal adjustments to enable Scotland to fully roll out harm reduction methods like regulated drug use facilities, drug screening, and greater accessibility to the life-saving medicine naloxone, which counteracts the effects of opioids.
READ ALSO:Tortured Prisoners Must Be Treated, UN Tells US Over Guantanamo Bay
