UK drug legal guidelines have to be reformed say MPs as they name for ‘protected areas’ pilot

The Scottish Government has been urgent for a so-called protected consumption facility to be arrange, with efforts on this having to date been blocked by Westminster. But the Home Affairs Committee has now revealed a report recommending a pilot in Glasgow is supported by Westminster and collectively funded by each governments.

Responding to the advice, the Government insisted “there is no safe way to take illegal drugs” and so they have “no plans to consider” the protected consumption facility advice. However, MPs on the committee have stated that if the UK Government stays unwilling to help the pilot, the ability to ascertain it must be devolved to the Scottish Government.

More extensively, the MPs really useful pilots of such amenities – the place drug customers can take substances underneath medical supervision with the purpose that the surroundings will assist stop drug-related overdose and different drug-related harms – in areas throughout the UK the place native authorities and others deem there’s a want.

Figures revealed final week revealed Scotland’s largest ever fall in drug deaths, with information from National Records of Scotland (NRS) exhibiting a complete of 1,051 deaths as a consequence of drug misuse in 2022 – a drop of 279 on the earlier 12 months. But whereas the variety of deaths linked to medicine misuse is now on the lowest it has been since 2017, the NRS report made clear that the speed of deaths continues to be “much higher” than it was when recording the information started in 1996.

The committee report, revealed on Thursday, stated: “We recommend the Government support a pilot in Glasgow by creating a legislative pathway under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 that enables such a facility to operate legally.” MPs stated the pilot “must be evaluated in order to establish a reliable evidence base on the utility of a safe consumption facility in the UK”.

More extensively, the committee stated each the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 require reform. They added: “We recommend that the UK Government reform the 1971 Act and 2001 Regulations in a way that promotes a greater role for public health in our response to drugs, whilst maintaining our law enforcement to tackling the illicit production and supply of controlled drugs.”

The report additionally really useful that the Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) “jointly establish a national drug checking service in England to enable people to submit drug samples by post anonymously”. They stated a UK-wide drug checking service can be the simplest strategy, encouraging the UK Government and devolved Governments to “consider jointly establishing such a service”.

Additionally, the MPs stated on-site drug checking providers at momentary occasions like music festivals and throughout the night-time economic system must be rolled out, recommending that the Home Office “establish a dedicated licensing scheme for drug checking at such events before the start of the summer 2024 festival season”.

Drug coverage must be the joint duty of the Home Office and DHSC, with a minister sitting throughout each departments, MPs stated. The report acknowledged that present classifications of managed substances must be reviewed by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to make sure they precisely mirror the danger of hurt, with additional evaluations each 10 years.

MPs welcomed the UK Government’s “commitment to reducing barriers to researching psychedelic drugs” and really useful they’re “urgently” reclassified “in order to facilitate research on the medical or therapeutic value of these drugs”. The committee stated it was “disappointed” that the Home Office had “repeatedly refused” to publish a 2016 report by the ACMD – a physique which it stated seeks to supply scientific, evidence-based suggestions to help the event of evidence-based drug coverage.

Calling for the report back to be handed over – a minimum of on a confidential foundation to the committee – the MPs stated withholding it “contravenes established practice and undermines the ACMD’s transparency”. While welcoming the 10-Year Drug Strategy’s dedication to tackling county strains, the committee stated the Government can “go further to prevent children and young people from becoming exploited”, including that it’s “vital” they – as individuals both exploited or susceptible to exploitation by prison gangs – are stored out of the prison justice system.

Committee chairwoman, Dame Diana Johnson stated: “The criminal justice system will need to continue to do all it can to break up the criminal gangs that drive the trade in illicit drugs. However, it must also recognise that many children and young people involved need to be supported to escape not punished for their involvement.

“Fundamentally, we need to have the right interventions in place to help people break free from the terrible cycles of addiction and criminality that drug addiction can cause. Simply attempting to remove drugs from people’s lives hasn’t worked. They need the right support to let them deal with addiction, but also psychosocial support and interventions that deal with the underlying trauma that may have led them to drugs in the first place.

“Over the course of the inquiry, we have seen a number of positive, locally-developed schemes make a real difference to those suffering from addiction and the wider communities. The Government should learn from the success as it develops best practice that can be implemented nationwide.”

A Home Office spokesperson stated: “There is no safe way to take illegal drugs, which devastate lives, ruin families and damage communities, and we have no plans to consider this.

“Our 10-year Drugs Strategy set out ambitious plans, backed with a record £3 billion funding over three years to tackle the supply of illicit drugs through relentless policing action and building a world-class system of treatment and recovery to turn people’s lives around and prevent crime.”

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) stated many commissioners “will not, however, feel that they can support approaches that they see as facilitating illegal drug use, such as drug consumption rooms and pill testing, and they therefore support the current legal position”.

While the organisation welcomed features of the report, the APCC stated it “would also like to have seen more on abstinence and recovery (including access to jobs, housing, and social networks to support recovery) – the HASC (Home Affairs Select Committee) says that these can be overemphasised at the cost of harm reduction; our experience is that the opposite is more often the case”.