THE mooted safer injecting scheme for heroin users in Glasgow suggests Scotland is more forward-thinking than other parts of Britain. Necessarily so, you might think, given existing policy saw a horrifying 867 drug deaths last year.
But in other ways, we have less to be smug about. Amid the figures a near doubling of deaths from ecstasy or similar drugs went barely reported: 28 people, the first year since 2003 that the total has been higher than 17.
Both police and drug agencies agree, the main problem is many of today’s Ecstasy tablets are up to three times their previous strength. There is no way to know from looking at a pill how strong it is or whether it contains what you expect.
Should those in possession of such substances be able to test them in clubs or at festivals so they know what they are taking? A number of charities, of which the most prominent is The Loop, based in England, are ready to offer the service.
But Police Scotland will not permit it. They say – rightly – the law doesn’t allow it. They want to see evidence it works and Home Office licencing of testers. The police fear alerting users to pills which are unusually strong can actually drive up demand. Yet a number of English forces appear to have made their peace with the practise. By destroying the sample – and turning a blind eye to where it came from – charities get around the law. At one recent festival volunteer testers alerted users to dangerously strong samples, as well as to bogus ones including antimalarial pills and caffeine tablets.
Much of what Police Scotland says makes sense. Where it falls down is that people will take drugs regardless. Testing inevitably legitimises their use to some extent. If you think insisting on the illegality of class A drugs can stop people from using them, then rejecting testing makes sense. But that is not Police Scotland’s position. “I absolutely understand that we cant eradicate these drugs,” says Kenny Simpson, coordinator of the force’s STOP unit.
In that context, it seems to me the sensible, and in many ways the moral course, to allow testing. Police Scotland would argue that it is not for the force to make those judgements. But if others countries, including England, can make it happen, why can’t we?
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