The Scottish government declared last week that it wanted to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use. Possession of drugs in Scotland remains under the pre-devolution Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and, as the Scottish drugs policy minister Elena Whitham says, the current approach has “failed”. Scotland has the highest drug mortality rate in Europe. Drug use is polluting every public service from mental health and homelessness to welfare, policing and imprisonment.
Scotland is supposedly in charge of these services. Yet the central government in London absolutely refuses to allow it to touch drugs policy. It reacted to Whitham’s announcement as though she were a lobbyist for the dealers. A horrified Rishi Sunak rushed out a statement reinforcing his government’s “tough stance” on drugs. An equally horrified Labour promptly agreed.
All recent attempts by Scotland to “socialise” its drug predicament have been blocked by the Home Office. This included last year’s effort to set up consumption and treatment centres for addicts in town centres. The UK’s home secretary, Suella Braverman, reacted by saying that the right answer lay in tougher laws not weaker ones. She reportedly wanted cannabis to become a class A drug. In March she also suppressed a report supporting decriminalisation from her own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, a body supposedly independent but long purged of members thought to favour reform. Its secret report is now dubbed a “confidential conversation with ministers”.
Not just decriminalising but legalising and regulating supply of cannabis (and, in certain countries, other drugs) is the norm among progressive western democracies, as offering a civilised and realistic means of controlling demand and supply. In decriminalising cannabis, the UK trails behind the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Canada and South Africa, not to mention 21 American states and cities, including California, New York City and Washington DC. It is estimated that more Americans, roughly 55 million, now use cannabis than smoke tobacco, apparently to the benefit of their health. Virtually all EU countries have legalised medical cannabis, which in Britain is controlled not by the medical authorities but by the home secretary, who has rendered it all but unobtainable. It is like leaving education in the hands of creationists.
Many of the reformist countries still experience drug problems – though few on a par with Scotland’s. The Netherlands is pestered with drug tourists. North America’s various regimes offer useful lessons in what not to do as well as what to do. Colorado and Canada are worth watching. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who favours decriminalisation, might study New York, where legalisation was introduced last year. Portugal has found that decriminalisation means what it says: less crime, but also less addiction.
This debate is not really about drugs but about political courage. It echoes the discussion on capital punishment in the 1960s. Then, politicians lived in mortal fear of pro-hanging constituents, who would summon them to meetings to agree that “hanging was too good” for criminals. Few dared advocate abolition, until a brave home secretary, Roy Jenkins, faced down his officials and got parliament to ban the rope.
We do not have brave ministers today. Out of office they may be reformers. But in power they regard the Home Office as an in-house Daily Mail that can click its fingers, summon the diehards and silence debate or reform. But Scotland supposedly has a devolved administration. It has a devolved solution to a devolved problem. At the very least, it should be allowed to pilot its proposal. We might have hoped that Keir Starmer would agree. But he too lacks the guts.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
