Scotland is right – punishing drug users won’t help, they need care as much as cancer patients do

The latest policy initiative in Scotland represents a broader move to pivot problem drug use towards health rather than crime, writes Ian Hamilton

Anyone caught in possession of a class A drug like heroin or crack-cocaine will be given a warning rather than face prosecution in Scotland. (Alamy)

Newly appointed Lord Advocate of Scotland, Dorothy Bain, has told MSPs that anyone caught in possession of a class A drug like heroin or crack-cocaine will be given a warning rather than face prosecution.

Scotland now has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe with 1,339 people dying in 2020. Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP know they have to act and reverse this annual record rise in Scots prematurely losing their lives to drugs. This issue has rocketed up Nicola Sturgeon’s list of priorities and is now a “national mission”.

Predictably, the Scottish Conservatives wasted no time in opposing the move from prosecution to warnings, saying that it was “de facto decriminalisation”. Sadly demonstrating their ignorance as it is not decriminalisation, rather it is depenalisation.