Thread by @wgsaraband

A lot of talk today about drug-related deaths in Scotland. Any public debate and proposal of solutions to ameliorate this problem is welcome, so here's how Portugal's decriminalisation of personal drug possession/usage in June 2001 resulted in significant statistical changes:

In 2012, the drug-related death toll in Portugal was at a very low 3 per every one million, compared to the EU's average of 17 deaths per one million. According to a paper by C. Hughes in the British Journal of Criminology, drug use amongst adolescents declined significantly.

According to the same paper, there was an increased voluntary uptake of treatments related to drug addiction of around 60%, meaning the policy helped to de-stigmatise this issue and make it easier for sufferers to come forward and actually access the help they require.

In another paper published by the Portuguese Institute for Drug and Drug Addiction, there was a reduction in HIV diagnoses of 17% in drug users, and a general drop of 90% in HIV infections related to drugs. This comes in part as a result of creating safe spaces w/ clean needles.

Reported use of illicit drugs actually increased following the policy, but researchers also put it down to these numbers actually being more reflective of reality than the previous values, again thanks to the de-stigmatisation of the issue.

The Portuguese criminal justice system also saw the benefits of decreased work loads related to drug cases, allowing other matters of justice to be dealt with more swiftly, and resources streamlined into other needed areas of the judicial system.

Now, Portugal is by now means perfect, and it still hasn't embraced the medical use of cannabis and other drug-related policies which may not only save lives, but also help many others currently plagued by difficult, painful diseases.

What we can learn from this, however, is that drug usage is not a criminal matter, but one of public health. There are many social circumstances that may take people down this path, such as austerity measures and lack of treatment for mental illnesses like anxiety and depression.

Now, to be candid, Scotland has a big problem on its hands. But like we once decided to make something about knife crime in places like Glasgow, through an integrated approach combining various social services, we may as well put a similar effort to tackle the drug epidemic.

This is made more difficult, of course, by the fact that Westminster is obstinate in trying to tie the hands of the Scottish Government. This is yet another reason why independence is not a luxury, but a necessity. But until then, we must keep the pressure on Westminster.

Every drug-related death is a preventable tragedy. Criminalising these people, who are already the most vulnerable in society, has done nothing but exacerbate the problem. So let's look at the science of other countries, like Portugal, and take a pragmatic, humane approach. (end)