Minister seeks cross-UK drugs law meeting

SCOTLAND’S drugs policy minister has called for a four nations meeting to discuss reform of drugs legislation.

Angela Constance has written to Home Office minister Kit Malthouse, also seeking to discuss overdose prevention facilities and pill presses.

In her letter, Ms Constance said experts across Europe support the benefits of overdose prevention facilities.

The Scottish Government recently established a taskforce to tackle the drugs deaths crisis.

She said: “I was also encouraged recently to read of your aspiration to work with all of the devolved administrations to ‘tackle drug misuse, tighten controls on dangerous substances and widen the availability of treatments which prevent overdose deaths’, and I wondered if you were including overdose prevention facilities among those possible treatment options?”

The Home Office says drug consumption rooms are not legal in the UK although it will consider evidence on their harms and benefits.