Misuse of Drugs Act

Alison Thewliss Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP) [V]]

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 has failed. It has not stopped the flow of illicit drugs into our country. It has not prevented people taking drugs, and it has not kept them alive. In communities up and down these islands, predominantly but exclusively those where deprivation has been rife, families bear the scars of loved ones criminalised and lost to drugs. Generations of policy and politicians have failed them. It is inexcusable, and it cannot go on.

Drugs legislation is reserved to Westminster under schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998, which specifically mentions, at B1,

“the subject matter of…the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.”

In small areas such as needle distribution, life-saving naloxone provision and the excellent heroin assisted treatment programme operated by the Glasgow health and social care partnership under licence from the Home Office, allowances have been made under the Misuse of Drugs Act, but the UK Government could go much further. I would have them tear up the Act and start again or devolve all drugs policy to the Scottish Parliament, but in the meantime they could allow the Scottish Government to take further action to reduce harm and save lives.

Medically supervised drug consumption rooms, safe injecting facilities or overdose prevention rooms—there are different names, but their purpose is the same—get those who are injecting drugs inside, out of the pouring rain, the bin sheds, the filthy waste grounds and the lonely back lanes, and into a place where they will be looked after and get access to support, advice, a cup of tea and some dignity. If they overdose, they can receive treatment right away, not whenever a passer-by happens to find them. People can move from DCRs towards treatment and recovery when they are ready, and stay alive long enough to get there. It is not asking much; it is what we would all want if someone we loved was in that position. DCRs will not fix everything, and I would never claim that, but they are part of the picture.

I was lucky enough to visit the Quai 9 DCR in Geneva in 2019. It marks its 20th anniversary this year with some reflection on where it has come from. In 1986 Switzerland had among the highest reported HIV prevalences in the world. According to Miriam Wolf and Michael Herzig, between 1991 and 2010 overdose deaths in Switzerland decreased by 50%, HIV infections decreased by 65%, and new heroin users decreased by 80%. This is the result of a public health, rather than a criminal justice, intervention. Switzerland is not alone. As colleagues have made clear, countries around the world have taken similar paths.

I still recall the astonishment of the staff in Quai 9 when I described the situation in Glasgow and showed them the pictures of where people inject in the waste ground near my constituency office. I pay credit to Serge Longère, Garance Zarn and the team at Quai 9 for all they are doing to ensure that those who use their service are given hope and dignity. They offer access to support, training and jobs, as well as providing a place where people can take drugs in safety and move towards recovery.

Glasgow has had a plan for a similar facility since the 2016 “Taking away the chaos” report. It is the Home Office that stands in the way of that plan. An amendment to the Misuse Of Drugs Act—a simple statutory instrument—would at a stroke protect from prosecution those who seek to operate, work in, or use such a medically supervised drug consumption room. In a brave attempt to provide the beginnings of a facility, the campaigner Peter Krykant has been operating an overdose prevention project using a refurbished ambulance as a safe injecting van. He puts himself at risk doing so, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for that work. Peter is reducing harm, and he is saving lives, but it should not just be up to him.

I think of all the people who might still be alive today had the Home Office approved a proper facility for Glasgow five years ago, and had it not fallen back to the same tired old political rhetoric. The cowardly Ministers in the Home Office will not even come to my constituency to walk the streets, to listen to the campaigners with lived experience like Peter Krykant, and to meet those such a facility would support. It would not solve everything, we know, but it would help, and if it saved one person from being added to the grim total of drugs deaths in Scotland, it would be worth it. The UK Government must give up their damaging rhetoric, stop listening to the Daily Mail, and instead listen to the overwhelming global evidence of how medically supervised drug consumption rooms reduce harm and save lives—and do it now.