The Scottish Greens have called for the legalisation of dangerous Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
At the party’s autumn conference, delegates voted to back the legalisation of all drugs in Scotland; this would include the “controlled prescription of drugs” and the expansion of so-called safe drug consumption rooms.
But one party insider told The Scottish Sun: “Many of us have loved ones with addiction issues or have faced issues ourselves in the past. If they saw some of these ideas, they’d be very concerned.”
‘Surrender’
Writing in the newspaper, Annemarie Ward, CEO of addiction recovery charity FAVOR UK, warned: “The Scottish Greens have proposed that the NHS should prescribe heroin for free.”
“At a time when Scotland already has the highest drug death rate in Europe — 3.7 times the EU average — the solution being floated isn’t to expand treatment or rehab, but to hand out the very substance that’s destroying lives.
“It’s not compassion, it’s surrender. It tells the poorest Scots, ‘You’re beyond help, so here’s your fix’. If this is progress, then we’ve lost our moral compass.”
‘Real compassion’
Ward added: “Scotland spends hundreds of millions each year on ‘harm reduction’ programmes, yet drug deaths keep rising. According to Public Health Scotland, referrals to treatment have fallen by nearly 40 per cent since 2013, and the number of rehab beds more than halved.
“The country that once led the world in industrial innovation now leads it in funerals for the addicted. At what point do we admit that giving people easier access to drugs has not reduced harm, it’s multiplied it?”
She emphasised: “Real compassion fights for recovery, for dignity, hope, and a life worth living.”
Drug deaths
The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland has remained above 1,000 since 2018.
National Records of Scotland reported that 1,017 people died of drug misuse in 2024, a fall of 155 deaths from the previous year but still more than four times higher than when figures were first recorded in 1996.
The first experimental drug consumption room, Glasgow’s The Thistle, is a Scottish Government-funded shooting gallery open seven days a week, and has effectively been declared a ‘prosecution-free drug zone’ by the Lord Advocate.
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