Don’t treat heroin users as criminals says SNP’s drugs tsar
Addicts should be ‘diverted’ away from courts to clinics
HEROIN addicts caught with the illegal drug should not be prosecuted, Scotland’s new drug tsar said yesterday.
Catriona Matheson said users could be ‘diverted’ from criminal charges under plans being considered by the SNP government’s drugs death task force.
They would instead be directed towards healthcare – to help them recover from addiction.
Mrs Matheson, chairman of the task force, was speaking after the 26-strong group met in Edinburgh for the first time.
She revealed efforts to reduce the record number of drugs deaths would include an overhaul of the methadone programme, which she admitted had previously failed.
Speaking yesterday of how addicts could be ‘diverted’ away from criminal justice she said: ‘It’s not an easy fix, but if we can work with people there are options within the current system that doesn’t require a change in law.’
Currently, someone caught Deputy Scottish Political Editor with a small amount of heroin for personal use would be committing a criminal offence and could be charged.
Instead, Mrs Matheson said: ‘Would it be better to try to divert them? So instead of going into criminal justice, into healthcare or treatment or counselling of some sort.’
The meeting comes after a record number of drug-related deaths, with 1,187 dying after taking illicit substances in 2018 – up from 934 in 2017.
Mrs Matheson, a professor of substance use at the University of Stirling, will work alongside public health minister Joe FitzPatrick as well as members from Police Scotland, the health care system and recovering addicts.
The group will look at a number of options, including so-called ‘heroin shooting galleries’ so far banned by the UK Government. It will also consider changes which could be carried out under devolved legislation, including diversion from prosecution.
The Scottish Government has pledged to look again at the use of opioid substitution therapy after methadone was implicated in a number of drugsrelated deaths.
Mrs Matheson has called for methadone and other opioid replacements to be used alongside therapy and counselling to help combat the causes of addiction.
She said: ‘This is a very strong, evidence-based treatment.
‘But what is forgotten about sometimes in delivering that
‘Going to be let off the hook’
treatment is that it’s like a social support; it’s meant to be part of that package of opioid replacement treatment and it’s not just about prescribing a drug.’
She added: ‘I think this is where we have probably gone wrong a bit.
‘The focus has been on prescribing a drug, but actually the focus should be on the underlying causes of addiction and dealing with them and using the prescribing of the drug just as a part of that process to deal with the chemical dependency.’
More had to be done to help work through ‘adverse childhood experiences’ and ‘traumas’ often experienced by drug addicts, she said.
Scottish Conservative public health spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘There is most certainly a discussion to be had about moving some users away from the justice system and towards health services.
‘But we can’t create a situation where dealers, suppliers and serial criminals know they are going to be let off the hook.
‘We need a balanced approach which helps get people off drugs for good, but also keeps the public safe from those who flood our communities with drugs.’
Mr FitzPatrick also attended the event at the Quaker Meeting House in Edinburgh yesterday. He is calling for a wide roll-out of naloxone – which can be used to reverse the effects of an overdose.
Revealing he has a naloxone kit in his Dundee office and is trained to use it, he said he would like to see a wider rollout in city centres.