Scotland is the drug deaths capital of Europe and changing that is going to take something radical. The Scottish government thinks it’s found that something: the decriminalisation of all drugs for personal use. Humza Yousaf’s administration has issued a call for ‘a caring, compassionate and human rights informed drugs policy, with public health and the reduction of harm as its underlying principles’.
Between 2000 and 2021, 14,426 Scots died a drug-related death. For perspective, that is more than four times the death toll in the Troubles from 1969 to 2001
Yousaf proposes decriminalisation with a wider review of drug laws, calls on the UK government to legislate this and other changes or devolve the necessary powers to Holyrood, and urges a rethink of drug classification based on harms caused. The blueprint, which takes forward recommendations from Scotland’s Drug Deaths Taskforce, was published on Friday by Holyrood’s drugs policy minister Elena Whitham.
Barely had the proposals reached the newswires than they were rejected by Rishi Sunak and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
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