UK - Scottish Parliament Think-Tank Calls for Legalized Marijuana, Injection Sites, Prescr

[Heretic.Ape.]

Europe: Scottish Parliament Think-Tank Calls for Prescription Heroin, Safe Injection Sites, Legalized Marijuana



from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #539, 6/13/08
A think-tank established by the Scottish parliament and tasked with looking at new approaches to drug policy has issued a report calling for radical changes in the way Scotland deals with the damage of drug and alcohol use. Parliament asked the think-tank, the Scottish Futures Forum, to determine how the country could cut the damage in half by 2025.



The forum's report, Approaches to Drugs and Alcohol in Scotland: A Question of Architecture, landed like a stink-bomb in the middle of the ongoing Scottish debate over drug policy, which in recent months has been dominated by calls for a renewed "tough" approach to drug use and trafficking. It recommended that all substance use, including legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, should be subsumed under a single policy dominated by a public health approach and was harshly critical of over-reliance on the criminal justice system to reduce the harms caused by substance use.

"Historically, we have seen, in particular, drug use mainly as a justice issue," the report noted. "This is mistaken and alcohol and drugs should be seen predominantly as a health, lifestyle and social issue to be considered along with smoking, obesity and other lifestyle challenges. The current level of enforcement activity tackling low level use of illegal drugs may not be the most effective deployment of enforcement resources and is likely to fail in reducing drug and alcohol related damage by half by 2025. It should be recognized that sending people to prison for low-level alcohol and drug-related crime is unproductive and probably unsustainable."


Instead of current policies, Scotland should shift to evidence-based policies emphasizing a public health approach, the forum said. Such policies would include consideration of safe injection sites to reduce the spread of infectious disease, prescribing of heroin to addicts, and the taxation and regulation of marijuana. More resources should go to prevention and treatment of substance abuse, as opposed to law enforcement, the forum said.


The Scottish government was not pleased, and a spokesman ruled out any quick establishment of safe injection sites. "There are complex legal and ethical issues around consumption rooms that cannot be easily resolved," the spokesman said. As for prescribing heroin, Scotland will "wait and see" how pilot programs in England are working out, he said.


Scottish Conservatives were appalled, with Tory leader Annabel Goldie calling safe injection sites "shooting galleries" and saying they and marijuana legalization were ideas out of the past.


But Liberal Democrats were more open. Their spokeswoman, Margaret Smith, said: "Drugs misuse is a global problem and if other countries have developed new and radical solutions, then it is sensible to consider them for use in Scotland."






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The link to the report in the text leads to the archive here.
The companion document to the report can also be found in the archive here.

[fnord]

"Historically, we have seen, in particular, drug use mainly as a justice issue," the report noted. "This is mistaken and alcohol and drugs should be seen predominantly as a health, lifestyle and social issue to be considered along with smoking, obesity and other lifestyle challenges. The current level of enforcement activity tackling low level use of illegal drugs may not be the most effective deployment of enforcement resources and is likely to fail in reducing drug and alcohol related damage by half by 2025. It should be recognized that sending people to prison for low-level alcohol and drug-related crime is unproductive and probably unsustainable."

Amazing, Everywhere i look i keep seeing more and more evidence that the global outlook on drugs is changing. Hopefully the Scottish Parliament will take this advice to heart. Is the Parliament controlled by democrats or conservatives?

[Lunar Loops]

Originally Posted by fnord

Amazing, Everywhere i look i keep seeing more and more evidence that the global outlook on drugs is changing. Hopefully the Scottish Parliament will take this advice to heart. Is the Parliament controlled by democrats or conservatives?

Take a look at the Wiki entry for "Scottish Parliament" to see the make up. It should also be remembered though that ultimate control still rests with Westminster.

[Bajeda]

Scottish Conservatives were appalled, with Tory leader Annabel Goldie calling safe injection sites "shooting galleries" and saying they and marijuana legalization were ideas out of the past.

And her brain obviously came from the Stone Age.

Maybe she should be sent to a 'shooting gallery', and I'm not talking about safe injection sites either!


I love (and hate) how governments always form drug commissions only to reject their suggestions when they are actual scientifically valid and non-ideologically based determinations, and the gov. can't just blame it on 'stupid hippy activists' or some other easy to attack group to write it off.

[thepieman1]

Originally Posted by fnord

Is the Parliament controlled by democrats or conservatives?

Right now the leading party is the Scottish National Party (nationalists, if you hadn't already guessed), but they are currently actually a minority government due to the more proportional nature of the Scottish electoral system.

I'm pretty sure drug policy is one of the devolved issues, but as stated above most of the power of the country still rests in the Brittish parliament in Westminster.

edit: With all this politics I forgot to say what I was actually posting for. I have to say I am very happy about this suggestion, and it is definitely a move in the right direction.

However, I don't see any mention of drug education here, and although there is already a lot of it, I think more could still be done, and definitely would need to be done if more substances were to become legal.

[Panthers007]

Bravo! Common Sense rears it's dangerous head yet again. I'll love to follow this one!

Yep - blame heroin-addiction on "Hippys." Sounds like where I am. Us long-hairs must go pee in a jar weekly to see if we are hooked yet. I swear some people live in a vacuum-tube.