Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
New approach to drugs – now
I REFER to “Money wasted on drug users” (July 25) and ask why has the situation deteriorated to such a extent that per capita Scotland has the overall worst track record for drugs issues in Europe?
Much of the blame must lie with lack of early law enforcement as regards illegal possession, supply and allowing small amounts of cannabis to be used for “recreational purposes”.
In reality there’s nothing recreational about smoking cannabis resin which is, without doubt, all too often a one-way ticket to the gateway of the world of drugs.
If we look at “zero tolerance” with Japanese gun crime it is obvious that robust enforcement of the law is the proper course to follow with firearm-related offences being few, which goes to show it is an unqualified success.
The numbers of drugrelated deaths in Scotland, with a population of around
4.5 million, for 2020 and
2021 were 1,339 and 1,295 respectively. Figures recently released by Police Scotland showed there were 50 instances where officers had administered naloxone, which in all probability had saved the lives of the majority of recipients.
I suspect this was for the period March to December 2021. This being the case, one could speculate if the death toll may well have been higher for that year had it not been for police intervention with naloxone. Well done, lads.
Towards the end of last year Boris Johnson announced a 10-year plan to tackle the scourge of drugs. Penalties will include the confiscation of passports and driving licences. This may seem a drastic course of action but the “softly, softly” approach to tackling the nation-wide problem has failed in both England and Scotland.
The ultimate aim is to get habitual drug users off their habit but under today’s programmes many former users relapse within five years and are back at square one.
The SNP has invested huge amounts into drug treatment but there have been calls for extra funding to be allocated, but just how much will be needed?
If one looks at the West Midlands Policing area
(2.8 million) the annual cost to the taxpayers is circa
£1.4 billion to meet the cost of their drugs’ programme.
Drug-related deaths are much lower than in Scotland with only 219 recorded for the year 2020 alone.
It would appear the Scottish Government must dig deep to find adequate financing to pay for the crimes of burglary, theft etc listed above and all of which are complementary to drug-related crime.
As things stand at the moment, I have little confidence in seeing any overall improvement for the current year. A different approach to address the drugs problem in Scotland must be adopted but exactly what, remains to be seen.