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Go-ahead for UK ’ s first official consumption room
The UK ’ s first official consumption room has been approved by Glasgow ' s Integration Joint Board . The pilot facility will be based in a clinic on Hunter Street in the city ’ s east end .
Last month Scotland ’ s chief law officer – the lord advocate , Dorothy Bain KC – said she would be prepared to publish a prosecution policy stating that ‘ it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility ’ ( www . drinkanddrugsnews . com / not-inthe-public-interest-to-prosecuteusers-of-consumption-roomssays-scotlands-lord-advocate /), providing a legal basis for the establishment of a consumption room pilot .
The Scottish secretary , Alister Jack , subsequently confirmed that the UK government would
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not block the plans .
The lord advocate ’ s prosecution policy would not cover any offences other than possession , Bain stated : ‘ It does not amount to an exclusion zone whereby a range of criminality is tolerated . Police Scotland have operational independence and it has been of the utmost importance to me to ensure that Police Scotland retain the ability to effectively police the facility and ensure that the wider community , those operating the site , and those using the facility can be kept safe .’
While the pilot consumption room facility will ‘ still be limited to some extent , due to the reserved Misuse of Drugs Act ’, the Scottish Government was confident that it will save lives , drugs minister Elena Whitham stated at the time of the lord advocate ’ s announcement .
‘ This is not a silver bullet ,’ she
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said . ‘ But we know from evidence from more than 100 facilities worldwide that safer drug consumption facilities work . It is now time to see this approach piloted in Scotland .’
Although the last set of official Scottish drug death figures showed a 21 per cent reduction
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‘ This is not a silver bullet ... but we know from evidence from more than 100 facilities worldwide that safer drug consumption facilities work .’
ELENA WHITHAM
on the previous year ( DDN , September , page 5 ) the latest provisional figures from Police Scotland pointed to a 7 per cent increase in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2022 . Scotland ’ s drug rate remains the highest of any country in Europe .
www . gov . scot
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Aid money spent on ‘ punitive ’ drug control
Worrying shift in Afghan drug market
ALMOST $ 1BN FROM INTERNATIONAL AID BUDGETS intended to help end poverty was spent on the global ‘ war on drugs ’ over the last decade , according to a report by HRI .
Beneficiaries of the donor funding included police and prosecutors ’ offices and projects that increased surveillance and arrests , says Aid for the war on drugs , with at least $ 70m of overseas development aid going to countries that retain the death penalty for drugs . More than 90 developing countries were recipients of aid funding for drug control , the report states , with Colombia receiving $ 109m and Afghanistan $ 37m .
HRI analysed reports of donor spending that are submitted to the
OECD each year and found that more than half of the funding for drug control since 2012 has come from the US , at $ 550m , followed by EU institutions ($ 282m ), Japan ($ 78m ) and the UK ($ 22m ).
The report is calling for governments and donors to divest from ‘ punitive and prohibitionist drug control regimes ’ and instead invest in evidence-based programmes such as harm reduction . ‘ International aid is supposed to help end poverty and support development , not fuel human rights violations ,' said HRI executive director Naomi Burke- Shyne . ‘ Using aid budgets for drug control doesn ’ t help meet development goals .’
Document at https :// hri . global / publications / aid-for-the-war-on-drugs /
THERE IS ALREADY A ‘ SIGNIFICANT SHIFT ’ IN AFGHANISTAN ’ S DRUG MARKET , with ‘ surging ’ levels of methamphetamine production , according to a UNODC report . Methamphetamine trafficking saw a ‘ drastic ’ twelvefold increase in the five years to 2021 , it says , from 2.5 tons to just under 30 tons .
UNODC found that heroin trafficking had continued , but at a lower rate , since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and introduced its opium ban a year later . Many people fear that the opium ban – if sustained and successful – will see heroin replaced by far more potent fentanyls and nitazenes in the drug market , with significantly higher risks of overdose .
There have already been several reports of nitazenes entering the UK ’ s drug supply , with agencies warning that increasing levels of synthetic opioids in the UK market could lead to an escalating overdose crisis that mirrors the situation in the US . The levels of methamphetamine trafficking in Afghanistan detected since the opium ban indicate a ‘ possible reshaping of illicit drug markets long dominated by Afghan opiates ’, says UNODC .
Understanding illegal methamphetamine manufacture in Afghanistan at https :// www . unodc . org / unodc / en / press / releases /
4 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • OCTOBER 2023 WWW . DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS . COM