Scotland should fight drug abuse, not appease it with safe spaces for addicts

So, a majority of illegal drug users would be willing to use a state drug consumption facility that offers assistance, immunity and comfort while they commit their crime. That’s hardly surprising. I guess that burglars would avail themselves of a state chauffeur service that delivered and collected them from their victims’ homes – with full anonymity and immunity, of course. Such a scheme would reduce the risks associated with dangerous getaway driving, the logic would run.

As usual in Scottish politics, empathy with the immediate predicament of the individual overwhelms rationality. The fact that an addict desperately wants a fix doesn’t mean that the best way to help them is to facilitate it. Whether drug addiction has stemmed from the toughest personal circumstances or from reckless hedonism, the way forward is abstinence.

The very suggestion that a place where harmful drugs are taken can somehow render them “safe” is dangerous. When users wander befuddled from a “drug consumption room” do they still cause alarm to others? Do they still cause accidents and violence? Do they still sustain the whole evil system of drug supply? Do their lives still spiral down into meaningless oblivion? Do they still impose unnecessarily on the goodwill of the nation? Yes.

Our society has decided, with good reason, that it is unwilling to sacrifice the safety of its citizens and its financial resources in order to indulge selfish drug abuse.

However, the state should welcome addicts seeking to kick the habit with open arms, offering intensive support.

Meanwhile, maintaining in our society a culture of hostility to illegal drug abuse helps to reduce the number of people who become addicts. A part of that is vigorous policing, both to deter potential users and to eliminate supply chains.

Drug abuse is a grave threat to the wellbeing of any society, ever primed to claim victims on a vast scale, so let’s fight it not appease it.

RICHARD LUCAS Leader of The Scottish Family Party

Bath Street, Glasgow