Misuse of Drugs Act

Neale Hanvey Excerpts

Thursday 17th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Neale Hanvey (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) (Alba) [V]]

I am really encouraged by the voices across the UK and across the Chamber, including those of the hon. Members for Manchester, Withington (Jeff Smith), for Reigate (Crispin Blunt), for Edinburgh East (Tommy Sheppard) and for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) and the compelling contribution from my colleague in the Alba party, my hon. Friend the Member for East Lothian (Kenny MacAskill).

I also pay tribute to frontline workers in my Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency: Pauline Buchan, Kelly Rodgers and their team at the Kirkcaldy Cottage Family Centre and Dave Dempster and team at ADAPT. They are dealing with this problem head on. As a result of the current crisis in Scotland, I have spoken to them recently and will continue to meet them and give them all my support. The challenge that they face is a frightening number of drug deaths. In 2019, 1,264 drug deaths occurred in Scotland. Behind each number is a person with hopes and dreams. Not one of them dreamed of becoming addicted to drugs or having a criminal record; it happened in the context of the prohibition under the 1971 Act. It is unacceptable and change is essential.

To become a drug user is not a rational choice. The idea put forward by Nancy Reagan—the ineffective “Just say no to drugs” soundbite—sounds easy, but often it involves just saying no to poverty, just saying no to abuse, just saying no to neglect and deprivation, just saying no to hopelessness, just saying no to joblessness and just saying no to childhood trauma. “Just say no” serves only to demonise and stigmatise, criminalising and othering the most vulnerable in our society and communities—addict, dopehead, junkie, waster, stoner, user—and just like poverty this is not an accident.

Users are blamed for their substance use, their social circumstances and the failure of the scant treatment schemes available to them. Substance misuse is undoubtedly associated with deprivation and unemployment, and users are blamed for the lack of opportunity and shamed for their failure to meet neoliberal notions of a productive citizen. The pejorative of strivers versus skivers, as used by Mr Cameron, really illustrates that sentiment. All the while, the structural causes of substance misuse and inequality are ignored and dismissed, reinforcing that stigma. Demonising and criminalising vulnerable people serves only to misdirect the public from the abject failure of drug and social health policy.

Let me tell the House briefly about a case in my constituency of a person with deep childhood trauma who became involved in drug misuse. They were supported by services in my constituency to overcome that challenge, go to university and secure a business degree, but every opportunity that they tried to secure for a new future was rejected because of their background and the criminality, all related to drugs. They have since returned to drug use. That is absolutely heartbreaking. Current drug policies are criminalising people who have already suffered greatly, exacerbating that deep trauma.

The 1971 Act, and the continuation of prohibition, serves only to lock some of the most vulnerable people in a cycle of hopelessness. Release, the national centre of expertise on drugs and drug law in the UK, has rightly characterised the Misuse of Drugs Act as “50 years of failure”. Tinkering around the edges of drug legislation simply will not do. Dependency is a health issue, but it is not the core problem; it is but a symptom of iniquitous social policy and the state’s indifference to grinding poverty. The money spent on criminalising our most vulnerable would be much better spent and more effective if it were redirected to public health and social policy initiatives.

It is essential to devolve to the Scottish Government every lever required to adopt a public health approach. The failure to do so is a dreadful dereliction of duty. Control over drug policy must urgently be reviewed. As a minimum, I suggest that the devolution of all policy to Scotland is essential to help us to save lives.