THE Arches closure will not recreational reduce drug use according to an MSP.
Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow will use a debate in the Scottish Parliament to speak out against the decision which led to the arts venue and club closing this month.
He has praised the Arches for its social responsibility and said the closure will have implications for other venues in how they report drug use to police.
Me Harvie said:"It would be absurd to imagine that recreational drug use will be reduced because of this decision, or that public safety will be helped in any way.
"All that will happen is that people will switch to other, perhaps less experienced and less responsible, venues.
"Many venues will think twice in future before they report problems resulting from drug use to the police. This attitude to licensing is compounding the failures of this country's drug laws."
During a debate on the Air Weapons and Licensing Bill he will seek an amendment that "promoting social and cultural life" will be added to Licensing objectives.
He wants the impacts of decisions of the whole area of the licensing board to be considered when licences are up for review.
Mr Harvie added: ""Sadly this chance to change the law comes too late for The Arches itself. There have been warm words from the Scottish Government following the closure but we need much more than that. The Licensing Bill presents an opportunity to at least begin a debate about how we take account of the bigger picture, of cultural and social values, when reaching such decisions."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article