MPs yesterday faced demands for a public health emergency to be declared that could revolutionise the approach to Scotland’s dire Devolution of drugs laws to Scotland may be necessary to halt death toll .
The first evidence session of Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee’s inquiry into drugs heard emphatic appeals for a pilot scheme for a safe drugs consumption room in Glasgow amid a national death rate that is worse than any other European nation.
Declaring an official emergency would enable ministers to disregard issues in the current legal framework that many view as blockers to progress, setting up treatment centres that have been successful in other countries without waiting years for law changes.
Witnesses argued for radical reforms that would make drugs more of a health issue than a criminal one – and pointed to Portugal, where the drug death rate collapsed after a more compassionate approach – as a successful example that Scotland could copy.
Inquiry chairman Pete Wishart asked witnesses what issue the committee should take forward to the Home Office.
Professor Catriona Matheson, of the University of Stirling, said: “Thinking of the drug-related deaths situation, I think we should be declaring a public health emergency.
Case for Glasgow drug consumption room 'is one of strongest in Europe'
“We need to do something now – we can’t wait for legislation changes several years down the line because it will be too late for a whole generation of people at risk.”
Dr Tessa Parkes, director of the Salvation Army Centre, which researches drugs harms, added: “The recommendation I would make would be to decriminalise personal possession of drugs.”
The committee also heard how some people are forced to seek out street dealers because doctors are increasingly reticent about continuing to prescribe benzodiazepines that people have become addicted to.
It was also told there are now more than 100 drug consumption facilities around the world – but no city had presented a better case of more pressing need than Glasgow.
Dr Emily Tweed, of Glasgow University, told the committee: “These facilities are able to reach people who are most at risk of drug harm and reduce the sharing of drugs injecting equipment.”
Devolution of drugs laws to Scotland may be necessary to halt death toll
Dr Tweed added that research in Scotland found 79 per cent of drug users said they would use such a facility and 74 per cent would use it every day.
The committee will share evidence with the Scottish Government’s own inquiry into drugs, which was set up after the Daily Record highlighted how our death rate is out of control.
