Scotland urged to ‘be brave’ and introduce drug consumption rooms
THE UK'S former deputy drugs tsar Mike Trace has said Scotland needs to be more "brave and creative" and introduce controversial drug consumption rooms (DCRs) as part of its drug strategy.
Trace, now chief executive of the International Drug Policy Consortium, a non-governmental organisation, spoke to the Sunday Herald ahead of his first visit to Scotland. He will speak at the Scottish Drugs Forum's Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday about the implications of global drug policy on Scotland.
He said policy makers in developed Western countries such as England and Scotland "have to be much braver and more creative on following what would appear to make a bigger difference. They policy makers need to get off the fence."
He added: "If integrating our chaotic drugs users more in services with less stigma is the correct path, the sort of directions you should be going in is drug consumption rooms; whole community services that bring drugs users into the fold, instead of keeping them separate.
"We know that well-managed services of this type make a big difference and we don't implement them because we are concerned about looking like we are being too nice and liberal to drug users."
Trace has long been an advocate of harm-reduction services such as methadone prescriptions. He was deputy to the UK's first drug tsar, Keith Helliwell, and played a central role in the creation and implementation of the UK National Drug Strategy from 1997 to 2000. In his later role as head of demand reduction at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), he was forced to resign after just eight weeks over allegations he was promoting a liberal drugs policy against the wishes of US donors.
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