Lord McCluskey in call to legalise heroin
13 Sep 05
Retired judge claims that current drug policy not working
Lord McCluskey has called for heroin to be legalised, saying that the current drugs policy is not working.
In an interview in the Scotsman today, the former Court of Session and High Court judge, who retired in 2000, states that heroin should be given to addicts in a medically controlled setting, to reduce crimes associated with addiction.
He comments: "We've created a huge market for criminals to operate in.... In other countries, drug addiction is treated as a health problem. Here it is treated as a legal problem."
In 2004, there were 356 drug-related deaths in Scotland, 39 more than the previous year. Two-thirds of these involved heroin while the prescribed heroin substitute, methadone, was involved in 80 deaths. Lord McCluskey believes that the rise in the death toll since the 1970s is a measure of the "massive failure" of present policy.
In response the director of Scotland Against Drugs, Alistair Ramsay, said there was a "clear academic argument" for legalising heroin, but that he thought that people who use drugs would use as much as they could get and therefore making it readily available would lead to increased usage.
Drugs policies are decided by Westminster and a Home Office spokesperson said the government had no intention of legalising the use of any currently controlled drug.