Police in Scotland arrest more people for drug offences than any European country except Sweden, the Record can reveal.
Our heavy duty approach saw 602 arrests per 100,000 citizens in 2017 – making us the fourth most hardline among 60 leading nations in a survey.
Police Scotland arrested more people per head of population than the US and 2.6 times as many as in England and Wales.
At the same time, Scotland’s drug deaths have risen to almost three times that of the rest of the UK, which appears to confirm the view of some that it is impossible for a country to arrest its way out of drug problems.
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Our drug bust count was beaten only by Malaysia, Australia and Sweden – whose government adopted a controversial zero tolerance policy on drugs.
The figures will be seen as proof that zero tolerance of drugs does little to help the problems, as heavy duty policing has coincided with the Scottish drugs death rate going through the roof, to be far worse than any other European nation.
A growing number of people believe that decriminalising drug possession and decreasing the stigma surrounding drugs would be a massive step forward.
The global figures were collated by Sunrise House, an American Addiction Centers facility that provides research-based programmes for adults struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
Data was collected using sources including the UN World Drug Report 2018, official government sentencing guidelines and other publicly available content from credible publications.
Ruchi Dhami, of the American Addiction Centers, said: “Having looked at the officially reported data regarding drug arrests in nearly 60 of the largest nations on Earth, it is very apparent that Scotland’s government and law enforcement agencies take drug offences very seriously.
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"When looking at the metric of drug arrests per 100,000 citizens, Scotland produces the second-most arrests for drugs of all of the countries in Europe and, in fact, produces the fourth most drug arrests – on a per 100,000 citizens basis – of all of the countries we evaluated.
“While we ourselves are not experts on the current Scottish drug climate and culture, there is no question that the nation’s law enforcement has made curtailing drug possession and trafficking a major priority.
“Regardless of the legal outcome, it is our hope that those who struggle with addiction are able to access the proper resources to receive the life-saving treatment they need.”
