UK 'has no plans to decriminalise drugs' despite recommendations from Scottish inquiry

The UK Government has rejected a number of recommendations designed to overhaul the approach to problem drug use in Scotland.

An inquiry was held by the Scottish Affairs Committee last year, after 1,187 people lost their lives to drugs in Scotland in 2018 - 64 of them in Fife.

It came after different views had been expressed by the Scottish and UK governments on how best to reduce the number of fatalities linked to illicit substances.

After taking evidence from a variety of groups including NHS Scotland and Health Protection Scotland, a series of recommendations were made by the cross-party group of MPs to the UK Government.

It focused on a shift away from treating problem drug use as a criminal matter, to a public health issue.

That included recommendations to decriminalise the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use - saying this move was "proven to address the root causes of problem drug use".

Another recommendation focused on allowing a pilot of a so-called safe consumption facility to be set up in Glasgow, to allow people with addictions to take drugs under supervision and with medical support.

In its response, revealed today, the UK Government rejected calls from the committee to declare a public health emergency, but said it accepted "the importance of working across the UK to tackle drug misuse".

It continued: "The UK Government shares the committee’s concern about problem drug use and the very real damage that dependence on drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine can do to individuals, their families and whole communities."

It also accepted "in principle" a call to be "bold, imaginative and evidence-based" in its approach.

But the government rejected a recommendation to review the impact that welfare sanctions have on people who use drugs - saying the DWP "provides a range of support to help those with a drug dependency to recover, find work and turn their lives around".

On the issue of taking away the threat of criminal action against those who possess small amounts of drugs for personal use, it said: "This government has no plans to decriminalise drug possession.

"The decriminalisation of drug possession in the UK would not eliminate the crime committed by the illicit trade, nor would it address the harms associated with drug dependence and the misery that this can cause to families and communities.

"There is a substantial body of scientific and medical evidence to show that controlled drugs, when misused, are harmful and can damage people’s mental and physical health, and our wider communities.

"Our approach on drugs remains clear—we must prevent drug use in our communities, support people through treatment and recovery, and tackle the supply of illegal drugs."

Meanwhile, responding to a call to bring forward legislation for the pilot of the consumption room - or to devolve powers on this to Holyrood - the government stated: "We want to do all we can to stop people having access to drugs that could ultimately kill them. No illegal drug-taking can be assumed to be safe and there is no safe way to take them.

"At present, drug consumption rooms (DCR) are not legal in the UK, due to a range of offences that are likely to be committed under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 should a DCR be in place.

"That would be the case regardless of whether a DCR is piloted or whether there is full roll out of DCRs across the UK. Therefore, any potential plan for a DCR would need to obtain an exemption from the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

"The UK Government does have powers to do this, by making regulations such as the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. However, these regulations would not be able to provide wider exemption from potential common law offences, such as manslaughter, or offences under other legislation. There would also be additional challenges regarding civil liability, were things to go wrong."

Pete Wishart MP, chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, said: "The predecessor committee’s report on problem drug use in Scotland followed one of the most extensive drugs inquiries in Scotland ever conducted.

"We argued that a public health approach will do better at tackling the drivers of problem drug use, as opposed to the stigmatisation offered by the current criminal justice approach that effectively blocks routes to recovery.

"We are surprised and disappointed by the government’s almost wholesale rejection of recommendations by a Westminster select committee after collecting a substantial body of evidence from people with lived experience, charities and academics, as well as legal, criminal justice and health professionals - few of these will find comfort in this response.

"On the proposal for safe consumption facilities, the government has repeatedly stressed that this is something that they do not favour. In their response to our report they re-iterated the legal challenges to a pilot being established even though we saw for ourselves how effective these facilities have been in saving lives in a number of countries round the world.

"The report of the previous committee encouraged the government to do what is necessary to approve the proposed pilot scheme in Glasgow. This would give people using drugs greater exposure to the full range of services to help them recover. More lives could be saved.

"The government describes its approach to tackling the issue as ‘evidence-based’ but offers little evidence supporting it and fails to address why the evidence we collected should be discounted. We’d like to see the government’s evidence, as well as an outcome document from February’s UK Drugs Summit.

"What is evident is there’s little change in the government’s drugs strategy despite the death rate in Scotland from problem drug use remaining stubbornly higher than any country in Europe. This fact itself should demonstrate that the current approach isn’t working. This is undoubtedly a public health emergency.

"The current committee will examine in more detail the government’s response and will follow-up with a round table event on the topic later in the month. The coronavirus crisis has presented new hurdles to those seeking recovery and access to services has become more difficult while the scale of the problem has not diminished."