Home | Community | Message Board

Avalon Magic Plants
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Kraken Kratom Shop: Kratom Capsules for Sale, Red Vein Kratom

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Scottish government wants drug possession to be legal * 1
    #28388402 - 07/07/23 12:58 PM (10 months, 6 days ago)

Scottish government wants drug possession to be legal
July 7, 2023 - BBC

The Scottish government has called for the decriminalisation of all drugs for personal use.

It wants the UK government to change the laws to allow people to be "treated and supported rather than criminalised and excluded".

However it would still be an offence to have possession of drugs with the intention of supplying them to others.

The government also wants the law to be changed to allow the introduction of supervised drug consumption facilities.

Drugs laws are currently reserved to Westminster.

However, the Scottish government has responsibility for health and social policies around drug consumption.

Other proposals from the Scottish government include more substance checking services and increased access to emergency treatments for drug overdoses.

Announcing the proposals, Scotland's Drugs Policy Minister Elena Whitham said the "war on drugs has failed".

She added: "That's a fact. I don't think we can dispute that.

"Our current drug law does not stop people from using drugs, it does not stop people from experiencing the harm associated and, critically, it does not stop people from dying.

"In fact, I would say today here, that criminalisation increases the harms people experience. Criminalisation kills."

The call comes four years after the SNP backed decriminalising the possession and consumption of drugs at its party conference.

UK government opposition

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Illegal drugs destroy lives and devastate communities. We are committed to preventing drug use by supporting people through treatment and recovery and tackling the supply of illegal drugs, as set out in our 10-year drugs strategy. "We have no plans to decriminalise drugs given the associated harms, including the risks posed by organised criminals, who will use any opportunity to operate an exploitative and violent business model."

The number of people who died of drug misuse in Scotland dropped slightly last year from 1,339 to 1,330 after eight consecutive years of increases, but the country continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe.

The crisis prompted more than £250m of investment by the Scottish government into the country's addiction services.

Efforts to establish drug consumption rooms in Scotland have been ongoing for years.

Campaigners say the facilities - where people can inject drugs under supervision - are needed and are backed by the Scottish government.

However, an attempt to set up consumption rooms in Glasgow was blocked by UK government, which argued a range of crimes would be committed in the course of running such facilities.

In 2021, a decision by the Lord Advocate meant people caught with Class A drugs in Scotland could be given a police warning instead of facing prosecution.

Critics at the time said the move, which does not extend to drug dealing, was "de facto decriminalisation".

'Madness'

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay added: "It is madness to try and solve Scotland's drug death crisis, the worst in Europe, by essentially legalising heroin, crack and other class-A drugs.

"This would put more drugs on our streets. It would put more lives at risk. "

The shift was also ruled out by UK Labour with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves telling journalists during a visit to Scotland: "I don't think this sounds like a good policy."

A joint statement from 10 leading drugs charities welcomed the Scottish government's report, but said drug consumption rooms and drug testing facilities "as a matter of urgency".

It's the first week of the Scottish Parliament recess. It's a Friday. It's the junior minister.

An unusual way to launch a major policy change on drugs.

The decriminalisation of personal drug possession is designed, as the minister says, to save lives.

The Lord Advocate has already said there's a presumption against prosecution for personal drug possession - but that's only a presumption.

This new policy draws a thick red line under that.

Couple decriminalisation with drug treatment rooms and Scotland could have a very new approach to tackling a huge problem.

We have more than three times the deaths from drugs overdoses than any European country.

The Scottish government calls these plans ambitious and radical.

Perhaps hard to argue with that. This is a significant proposal - but is it one to take seriously, given the circumstances of the launch?

Yes, say the government's partners the Scottish Green Party - and also the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Scottish Labour don't think it's the right approach. One of the party's MSPs has consulted though on a potential bill for Overdose Prevention Centres.

Labour add that communities blighted by drugs are often over-looked in the debate.

The Scottish Conservatives think it's "madness" and Downing Street has already said "no".

Both Conservatives and Labour claim this is another, cooked-up constitutional grievance from the SNP.

So, once again more constitutional arguments - but some argue there's no time left for that.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleBarnaby
Interesting lifetime
Male

Registered: 12/13/17
Posts: 9,217
Re: Scottish government wants drug possession to be legal [Re: veggie] * 1
    #28388663 - 07/07/23 05:56 PM (10 months, 6 days ago)

Sean Connery from the deleted ghost scene in Indy in the bi-plane send of, gives a thumbs up.:thumbup:

Seriously think he would, Bondman of all time.  Seriously though with this educational guess is politicians all over the world and people as the our habitat and animals worlds are destroyed to a level, that really sucks, won't care about dumb shit like this.

Water will be everything.  The most sought after thing in the world.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Kraken Kratom Shop: Kratom Capsules for Sale, Red Vein Kratom


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* No More Jail Terms for Drug Possession (Russia) luvdemshrooms 3,698 12 05/20/04 02:23 PM
by grib
* The Drug War Goes Up in Smoke (lengthy but worthwhile read) Demiurge 5,412 2 08/14/03 06:17 AM
by TheHobbit
* Pot Possession in Ontario Illegal Again Therapy 2,633 4 10/08/03 05:45 PM
by Raadt
* All drugs decriminalised in Russia including dealing MetaShroom 2,218 6 05/28/04 12:55 AM
by matts
* Animal Lovers Favor Drug Legalization motamanM 1,945 3 12/27/03 10:49 PM
by Revelation
* S. Jersey man faces a rare drug charge motamanM 3,392 6 10/04/03 01:22 AM
by monoamine
* Weiland Busted for Drugs motamanM 2,665 1 05/20/03 12:44 PM
by Learyfan
* American drug law / war on drugs stefan 2,669 1 12/27/02 01:35 AM
by Learyfan

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
380 topic views. 0 members, 2 guests and 2 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.017 seconds spending 0.004 seconds on 13 queries.