Scottish Government follows Ireland in backing ‘public health approach’ to drug use
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The Scottish Government has unveiled a new strategy to divert drugs users from the criminal justice system by taking a “human rights-based, public health approach” to the issue.
The Rights, Respect and Recovery strategy echoes the Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery strategy launched by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last summer.
The Scottish strategy aims to ensure that “vulnerable people are diverted from the justice system wherever possible, and those within justice settings are fully supported”.
The new strategy comes as drugs deaths in Scotland reached a record high of 934 last year, the highest level in Europe and more than twice the UK rate.
Scottish and Irish judges have collaborated over the past decade on initiatives such as specialist drug courts, which were first piloted in Scotland in 2001.
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