Yousaf in pledge to decriminalise drugs
Sarwar blasts Nats leader on Scotland’s spike in overdoses
Humza Yousaf revealed his government could decriminalise all drugs for personal use if more powers were devolved to Holyrood.
The First Minister made the claim yesterday as he faced questions from opposition leaders on why the number of Scots dying from suspected overdoses rose by 10 per cent last year.
The SNP leader was asked by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar when he would finally “get a grip” on the crisis that sees more people die from drugs in Scotland per head of population than any other Western European nation.
It comes after figures out this week showed there were 1197 suspected drug deaths between January and December 2023.
The Record has led the way in calling for drug addiction to be treated as a health matter instead of a criminal one.
Our front page on July 4, 2019, forced the issue to the top of the political agenda when we first reported on the case for the decriminalisation of drugs.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Yousaf gave an “absolute guarantee” his government would try “innovative approaches” where possible.
He added: “If we did have the power over the Misuse of Drugs Act, we’d seek to make changes in relation to the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use. We know that intervention has worked in other countries.”
All laws regulating drug use are reserved to Westminster but the Scottish Government has responsibility for health and social policies around drug consumption.
Elena Whitham, the former SNP drugs minister, last year called on the UK Government to change the law to allow people to be “treated and supported rather than criminalised and excluded”.
She said the “war on drugs has failed” as she promoted a report outlining measures the Scottish Government says could be taken now, or through further devolution or independence.
The proposals included decriminalisation of all drugs for personal supply.
But the call was flatly rejected by the UK Government who said “illegal drugs destroy lives and devastate communities”.
The issue of decriminalisation has shot back up the political agenda this week after Yousaf faced accusations the Scottish Government’s current drugs strategy was failing.
Sarwar warned MSPs that “incompetence has consequences” when it came to tackling drugs deaths.
And he criticised drugs minister Christina McKelvie for earlier insisting the government’s strategy was working.
“It has been four-and-a-half years since the SNP government declared a drugs death emergency,” he said. “Since then, over 5200 lives have been lost in drug-related deaths. Every single one of them someone’s son, daughter or loved one.
“Incompetence has consequences. It means Scotland has the highest rate of drugs deaths in Europe.”
Yousaf told MSPs the drugs budget had risen by 67 per cent between 2014-15 and 2023-24 – adding this level of funding would be maintained in 2024-25.
And he insisted the Scottish Government had an “unwavering, unshakeable commitment” to tackling the issue.
Scotland has already moved to liberalise drug laws. In 2021, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain announced possession of Class A drugs would no longer lead automatically to prosecution.