MP in drugs safe haven showdown
Scot & former Swiss prez to take on Tory
A SCOTS MP and a former president of Switzerland are to ramp up the case for drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in a showdown with the UK’s Policing and Drugs Minister.
A meeting tomorrow will see Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan and Ruth Dreifuss seek to turn Kit Malthouse away from the UK’s strategy on drugs, which has seen nothing but increases in death rates.
Dreifuss, now commissioner at the Global Commission on Drugs Policy, was a supporter of DCRs in Switzerland, which now has 13 in eight cities.
She reformed the nation’s drugs strategies to take the focus away from crime to prevention, therapy and rehabilitation. Cowan, vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on drug policy reform, said: “In Scotland we don’t just have the need, we have the desire and cross party support to establish one in Glasgow.
“To help nudge the UK Government into a place where they can facilitate such a step, I’ve recruited the expertise of a past president of Switzerland, Ruth Dreifuss.
“I have brokered a meeting with Ruth, Kit Malthouse and myself. My hope is Ruth can shine some common sense into the dark recesses of the Home Office.”Cowan added: “The Home Office has a consistent stance of denial, which is misguided.
“Nobody claims DCRs are a magic wand but, in every country they have been deployed, they have saved lives and been a vehicle to help rehabilitate and integrate people back into society.”
The establishment of DCRs in Switzerland led to the virtual eradication of “drug scenes” like those that blight many parts of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.
In a letter to Cowan, Malthouse writes: “Although it is important to remain open to considering any new evidence relating to reducing drug misuse and related harms, there is a substantial body of scientific and medical evidence to show that controlled drugs are harmful and can damage people’s mental and physical health.”