SCOTLAND must stop spending “fortunes” on using prisons and courts to tackle drug use and deliver new treatments instead, a campaigner claims.
Fiona Gilbertson, founder of the Recovering Justice organisation, will tomorrow urge delegates at the SNP conference to back her calls for a major overhaul of drug laws and treatments.
Gilbertson, a former injecting drug user, says new research into the causes of Glasgow’s HIV crisis is further proof that current approaches are not working.
READ MORE: Scotland's drugs death crisis and why we need to act
Work by Glasgow Caledonian University and Health Protection Scotland found increased prevalence of cocaine injecting and homelessness helped create the “perfect storm” behind the UK’s biggest HIV outbreak for more than 30 years.
More than 100 new cases were diagnosed there amongst injecting drug users between 2015 and 2017 and Dr Norah Palmateer, co-author of the study, said the findings should be used to “inform public health interventions” to prevent further crises.
Gilbertson, who contracted HIV through intravenous drug use in Edinburgh, argues that authorities failed to learn from experiences there in the 1980s, and that the problem in Scotland’s biggest city is symptomatic of the country’s attitude towards drug users. She told the Sunday National: “There should never be an outbreak of HIV through injecting.
“It’s not cancer, we know exactly how you catch it and how you can prevent it. These communities aren’t being served. It’s the poorest, it’s the people who often don’t have anywhere to live, who are chaotic in their drug use.
“We are spending fortunes on people who take drugs, but we are spending it on prisons and courts.
READ MORE: Drug consumption rooms in Scotland gain cross-party support
“We can move Scotland from being the drug death capital of Europe to a beacon of compassion. We need a comprehensive review to treat as a public health issue.
“I don’t know why this is not further up the political agenda. If we had an outbreak of anything else, it would be.”
The UK Government, which retains powers over drugs, has refused to allow authorities in Glasgow to establish the first safe drug consumption facility (SDCF) in Britain.
It was hoped that centre would take drug injecting off the city’s streets and help users access help. The plan was backed by the Scottish Government and an expert group has been convened to examine what changes in practice or law “could help save lives and reduce harm”, Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick said.
Gilbertson, who backs the establishment of SDCF and the provision of heroin-assisted treatment (HAT), will today join former undercover police officer Neil Woods, of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, to address whether the “war on drugs” has failed in a session hosted by Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan.
READ MORE: Glasgow HIV outbreak: Cocaine and homelessness create 'perfect storm'
Cowan, who chairs Westminster’s all-party parliamentary group on drug policy reform, told this newspaper: “In Scotland we have a growing number of HIV and Hepatitis C cases. We know that sharing needles is a major contributory factor and that the provision of needle exchanges, either on their own or as part of a heroin assisted treatment unit or a safe drug consumption facility, greatly reduces the spread of infection. And yet we are closing needle exchanges and through some extremely clumsy legislation at Westminster making it impossible to legally open a SDCF in Glasgow.
“And while drug-related deaths in Scotland are on the increase, the people that rely on the support services that can help them are being treated by many like modern-day lepers. They are pushed to the margins of society, out of sight and out of mind. Their addiction is seen as a lifestyle choice and their health issues as payment for poor choices.
“We need legislation, we need finance to provide a wrap-around service but just as crucially we need to adopt a mindset that sees problematic drug use as a health issue.
“At SNP conference we shall be discussing drugs policy with the help of Neil Woods from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Fiona Gilbertson of Recovering Justice. Through events such as these we hope to gain a better understanding of the problems, the solutions and the practical steps we can take to reverse the current trend of increased addiction and deaths.”
Gilbertson said: “It’s about how we decide to treat people. Are we going to treat them with evidence-based treatment, or penalise them and punish them further?
“I don’t want a free-for-all for drugs, I’m not saying there are no dangers. But drug policy has targeted certain groups and it puts those people in prison, takes their children away if they are women. We have created generations of traumatised people."
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