NEWS ROUND-UP
Changes to consumption room legislation ruled out
The government has said that it has‘ no plans’ to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act to allow more drug consumption facilities to operate in the UK. The statement was in response to a call from the Scottish Affairs Committee to change legislation following the opening of The Thistle facility in Glasgow earlier this year.
The committee published a report in September calling on the UK government to‘ take an evidence-based approach to drugs policy to effectively tackle drug-related harms in Scotland’. If The Thistle was found to be effective and became a permanent facility at the end of its three-year pilot period the government should‘ make necessary changes’ to legislation to create a new legal framework for consumption
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facilities, it said. The Thistle was only able to open after Scotland’ s lord advocate stated users should not be prosecuted for being in possession of drugs at the facility.
The government replied that while it was committed to an evidence-based approach it had no intention of revising legislation – however it did confirm that a Home Office controlled drug checking license for the facility had been issued last month. This meant that Glasgow‘ will become the first city in Scotland where people can legally test drugs for dangerous contaminants’, the committee said.
‘ We welcome the news that the government has moved ahead with issuing a drug checking license in Glasgow, as our report recommended,’ said committee chair Patricia
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Ferguson.‘ Glasgow is at the epicentre of Scotland ' s record-high drug-death rate. This license, the first in Scotland, will grant support services a better understanding of new drug trends, and ultimately help reduce drug-related harms and deaths across the city. However, we’ re disappointed that the UK government continues to dismiss the possibility of amending drugs legislation to put The Thistle in a sustainable legal position, regardless of whether it ' s a success. Throughout our inquiry, the committee was told that the facility ' s current legal footing is precarious and not a substitute for proper regulation. Given the scale of Scotland’ s crisis, the UK government shouldn’ t take any option that could help reduce deaths off the table.’ |
' The UK government shouldn’ t take any option that could help reduce deaths off the table.'
PATRICIA FERGUSON
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Afghan opium cultivation drops another 20 per cent
Police and Crime Commissioners to be scrapped
OPIUM POPPY CULTIVATION in Afghanistan is down by 20 per cent compared to last year, according to the latest UNODC survey. The total area under cultivation in the country is now estimated at 10,200 hectares – compared to 12,800 hectares last year and a fraction of the 232,000 hectares recorded just before the Taliban’ s 2022 cultivation ban.
Opium production has declined at an even faster rate than cultivation, falling by more than 30 per cent to an estimated 296 tons. While Afghanistan previously supplied 95 per cent of Europe’ s heroin, poppy cultivation in the country had already fallen by 95 per cent within a year of the ban, with Myanmar subsequently overtaking Afghanistan as the world’ s largest opium source.
As‘ agricultural-based’ opiate production continues to decline, synthetic drugs appear to have become‘ the new business model’ for organised crime groups, UNODC states. Often extremely potent – and with far higher risk of overdose – these substances are not only much easier to produce, they are more resistant to climate changes and harder to detect by law enforcement.
Almost 90 new synthetic opioids have appeared on the European drugs market since 2009, while deaths involving nitazenes in England and Wales almost quadrupled between 2023 and 2024 according to the latest ONS drug death statistics.
Afghanistan opium survey 2025 available at https:// www. unodc. org /
POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONERS( PCCs) are to be abolished, the government has announced. Removing them will‘ cut the cost of unnecessary bureaucracy’, allowing at least £ 20m to be reinvested annually, it says.
Established in 2012 to‘ hold forces to account’, public understanding of – and engagement with – PCCs‘ remains low’, the government states, with consistently low turnouts in polls to elect them and two in five people unaware that they even exist. Their roles will now be absorbed by local mayors‘ wherever possible’, the Home Office says, with transition to the new model taking place in 2028.
‘ The introduction of police and crime commissioners by the last government was a failed experiment,’ said the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood. Association Of Police And Crime Commissioners chair Emily Spurrell, said her organisation was‘ deeply disappointed by this decision and the lack of engagement with us. Having a single, visible local leader – answerable to the public – has improved scrutiny and transparency.’
4 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • DEC 25 – JAN 26 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM