A LEADING substance abuse expert has urged the UK Government to change drug laws – and learn from Glasgow’s pioneering example.
Professor Catriona Matheson has urged Westminster to abandon punitive approaches to dealing with drugs – saying they are holding back efforts to tackle “problem drug use”.
In a major intervention, the former chair of the Scottish government’s drug death task force, said lessons could already be taken from Glasgow's safer consumption facility, which opened last month.
She said: “The signs from the Glasgow safe consumption site are positive in the very early days but there is a lot of information to be learned from that.
“In the meantime, other areas are still struggling with problem drug use across the United Kingdom and this is because of an inability to open safer consumption facilities due to the nature of our Misuse of Drugs Act, which limits the capacity to do that.”
The Glasgow facility is able to operate because the Scottish Government’s top lawyer allowed drugs to be taken on the premises, without users putting themselves at risk of arrest.
Prof Matheson, a specialist in substance abuse at Stirling University, will appear before the Scottish Affairs Committee on Wednesday and said she would use this to press the case for drug law reform.
She said: “My hope and the evidence I will give to the committee on Wednesday is that this is an opportunity for a new government to consider drug law reform and revisiting reform of the Misuse of Drugs Act to enable us to provide these types of facilities in other parts of the country.”
The Glasgow facility, known as The Thistle, joins more than 100 safer drug consumption rooms in 10 countries across the world.
They are considered to be an effective harm reduction measure, including addressing drug-related deaths and transmission of blood-borne diseases, according to experts.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “There are no plans to introduce consumption rooms.
“We will continue to take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers in our society, including drug misuse, and better support people to live longer, healthier lives.”
