Meeting of the Parliament 06 February 2014
I will advise the member separately on precisely when the fieldwork will be done. I think that the survey is done biannually, so probably the fieldwork will be on-going for a period. I will get back to the member on that.
It is clear that new drugs are a challenge not just for Scotland but for the United Kingdom and internationally. The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government and other Administrations to gather and share information and to ensure that Scottish interests are represented in reserved matters. The Scottish Government regularly cascades requests for information from the Home Office’s drugs early warning system to ADPs and drug services in Scotland.
In June 2013, the Home Office temporarily banned NBOMe and Benzofury-type substances. Members would find it hair-raising to google those substances and have a look at how they are sold. The Home Office thanked health and enforcement partners in Scotland for their contributions to the drugs early warning system, as their expertise helped those drugs to be banned.
We must look outwards and monitor the approaches that are taken elsewhere to new psychoactive substances. Three types of responses have emerged internationally. Some countries use consumer safety or medicines legislation, some have extended and adapted existing drug control laws and others have created bespoke legislation to tackle new psychoactive substances. No country has yet found a solution. New Zealand got some attention for its product licensing approach, but it is far too early to know whether that will be successful.
I close by restating the need for us all to work together to address the challenges that are presented by changing drug trends. The health implications of new psychoactive substances can be just as serious as those of controlled drugs, so we must challenge the myth that legal equals safe. I wanted to have this debate to ensure that new drugs are placed firmly on the parliamentary agenda. I hope that we will have an informed and productive conversation on the challenges of new psychoactive substances and on how Scotland can best respond. I look forward to hearing members’ views.
I move,
That the Parliament acknowledges that drug markets are changing internationally with the increased global availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS); recognises the challenges that NPS pose to Scotland in the areas of enforcement, public health, prevention and research, challenges that are common to other parts of the UK and internationally, and endorses a collective and co-ordinated approach to responding to NPS in Scotland by all organisations and individuals that have a role to play addressing the supply of these substances through enforcement activity, reducing the demand in their use through prevention, ensuring that services are able to respond and looking at what can be learned from approaches from across the UK and elsewhere.
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