Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48938509

When Scotland brought in Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol, many opponents warned that many people would turn to illicit drugs that were cheaper.

But did the Scottish government listen?

Of course not.

And the Welsh assembly wants to bring in MUP here (luckily postponed due to the Portugese government).

Will the Welsh assembly listen?

Of course not.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

Is there evidence this was caused by minimum pricing? The spike seems to have started in 2014 whereas a series of legal challenges delayed the introduction of minimum pricing until last year.

I don't know what caused it but there is clearly a rapid increase starting several years before the introduction of minimum pricing and the article itself seems to suggest it's to do with 'an ageing population of drug addicts' as well as new drugs appearing.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

The SNP is frantically trying to blame Westminster for reserving drugs policy, but all that’s reserved is its criminalisation, which clearly hasn’t caused a spike in deaths in England.

The problem in Scotland lies somewhere in the prevention and treatment, both policy areas that the dim-witted nats have been in charge of for 12 years now. Of course they’ve done little to nothing with the power they do have because they remain far more interested in using government as a platform for constitutional agitation, than serving the country they claim to love.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

Interestingly Portugal has the second lowest, and it went down the decriminalisation route in 2001.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

I am skeptical of drawing conclusions like that though. It could be that both the act of decriminalisation and their lower cases of drug deaths are a result of a general culture around drugs - i.e fewer deaths because it isn't a problem and because it isn't so much of a problem it was political easier to decriminalise drugs?

That said I am generally for decriminalising drugs, especially softer ones, because I think it would free up police time, raising money and allow legal producers to cut out the criminal markets resulting in less exploitation.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

Also interestingly, the UK has the same criminal law relating to drugs across its entire territory, but very different drug use patterns and fatalities in the part of the UK where health, policing, courts, prisons and social care are fully devolved.

The evidence from the UK is that the criminal status of hard drugs is neither the cause nor the solution to the level of fatalities seen in Scotland. It is the whole question of prevention of use and the treatment and monitoring of offenders that’s at issue.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

There's no evidence at all to support that assertion. You're simply offering an anti-SNP spin on a story that has far greater complexity than you describe. No surprise there though.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

How can you say there’s no evidence? There’s one criminal code and two different ways of dealing with addicts. One has produced a higher mortality rate than the other. I’m not denying the complexity of it, but the simplistic spin isn’t in pointing out the difference, the simplistic spin is in blaming a criminal code that obviously can’t be at the root of the problem when the same code produces different results in different places.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

It’s far from obvious that the criminal code isn’t at the root of the problem at all. You probably deep down know this, but that doesn’t allow you to slate the SNP.

Saying two places have the same set of laws therefore the law can’t be a problem is simply ignorance.

Re: Drug deaths up in Scotland
 

Saying the law must be the problem is, likewise, ignorance, when there are many other factors that can be compared and contrasted with each other across the border, yet that’s what the SNP’s submission to the relevant Commons select committee amounted to.

I’m not unaware of what’s going on here by the way ... it is a fashionable liberal position to argue for reducing the severity of the law’s position on drugs. I can see it’s easier for you to attribute my argument to dislike of the SNP than it is to deal with evidence that challenges your position.

The facts here are that there is one common schedule across the UK that states how severely each drug should be regarded, yet everything else varies between England and Scotland. Making a drug illegal doesn’t make it more lethal. There are plenty of things that can be done for drug addicts that are allowed by the law. Whatever is being done in England, the outcome is less than one third of the fatalities, per capita, than whatever steps are being taken in Scotland. It’s simple logic to examine first which different policies might be causing different outcomes.