Scottish government wants drug possession to be decriminalised

The Scottish government has called for the decriminalisation of all drugs for personal use.

It wants the UK government to change the laws to allow people to be "treated and supported rather than criminalised and excluded".

However, it would still be an offence to have possession of drugs with the intention of supplying them to others.

The government also wants the law to be changed to allow the introduction of supervised drug consumption facilities.

Drugs laws are currently reserved to Westminster.

However, the Scottish government has responsibility for health and social policies around drug consumption.

Other proposals from the Scottish government include more substance checking services and increased access to emergency treatments for drug overdoses.

• Could drug consumption rooms become legal in Scotland?

• Drugs death taskforce chief says punishing addicts must stop

• Rising drug deaths not due to ageing users, says report

Announcing the proposals, Scotland's Drugs Policy Minister Elena Whitham said the "war on drugs has failed".

She added: "That's a fact. I don't think we can dispute that.

"Our current drug law does not stop people from using drugs, it does not stop people from experiencing the harm associated and, critically, it does not stop people from dying.

"In fact, I would say today here, that criminalisation increases the harms people experience. Criminalisation kills."

The call comes four years after the SNP backed decriminalising the possession and consumption of drugs at its party conference.

UK government opposition

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Illegal drugs destroy lives and devastate communities. We are committed to preventing drug use by supporting people through treatment and recovery and tackling the supply of illegal drugs, as set out in our 10-year drugs strategy. "We have no plans to decriminalise drugs given the associated harms, including the risks posed by organised criminals, who will use any opportunity to operate an exploitative and violent business model."

The number of people who died of drug misuse in Scotland dropped slightly last year from 1,339 to 1,330 after eight consecutive years of increases, but the country continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe.

The crisis prompted more than £250m of investment by the Scottish government into the country's addiction services.

Efforts to establish drug consumption rooms in Scotland have been ongoing for years.

Campaigners say the facilities - where people can inject drugs under supervision - are needed and are backed by the Scottish government.

However, an attempt to set up consumption rooms in Glasgow was blocked by UK government, which argued a range of crimes would be committed in the course of running such facilities.

In 2021, a decision by the Lord Advocate meant people caught with Class A drugs in Scotland could be given a police warning instead of facing prosecution.

Critics at the time said the move, which does not extend to drug dealing, was "de facto decriminalisation".

'Madness'

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay added: "It is madness to try and solve Scotland's drug death crisis, the worst in Europe, by essentially legalising heroin, crack and other class-A drugs.

"This would put more drugs on our streets. It would put more lives at risk. "

The shift was also ruled out by UK Labour with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves telling journalists during a visit to Scotland: "I don't think this sounds like a good policy."

A joint statement from 10 leading drugs charities welcomed the Scottish government's report, but said drug consumption rooms and drug testing facilities "as a matter of urgency".

It's the first week of the Scottish Parliament recess. It's a Friday. It's the junior minister.

An unusual way to launch a major policy change on drugs.

The decriminalisation of personal drug possession is designed, as the minister says, to save lives.

The Lord Advocate has already said there's a presumption against prosecution for personal drug possession - but that's only a presumption.

This new policy draws a thick red line under that.

Couple decriminalisation with drug treatment rooms and Scotland could have a very new approach to tackling a huge problem.

We have more than three times the deaths from drugs overdoses than any European country.

The Scottish government calls these plans ambitious and radical.

Perhaps hard to argue with that. This is a significant proposal - but is it one to take seriously, given the circumstances of the launch?

Yes, say the government's partners the Scottish Green Party - and also the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Scottish Labour don't think it's the right approach. One of the party's MSPs has consulted though on a potential bill for Overdose Prevention Centres.

Labour add that communities blighted by drugs are often over-looked in the debate.

The Scottish Conservatives think it's "madness" and Downing Street has already said "no".

Both Conservatives and Labour claim this is another, cooked-up constitutional grievance from the SNP.

So, once again more constitutional arguments - but some argue there's no time left for that.

• The headline on an earlier version of this article said that the Scottish government wanted drug possession to be legal. It has since been corrected to make clear that the Scottish government wants personal drug possession to be decriminalised.