I have no idea if people still take to the Hippie Trail overland to Bangkok but if so, then there is no longer any need. Just head up the A1 to Bonnie Psychedelic Scotland where the SNP plan to decriminalise drugs. I am sure Irvine Welsh must be furious. If drugs are decriminalised, then what is the point of his drug fuelled oeuvre which thrives on their very illegality and the subculture around them? Simultaneously First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been critical of the UK immigration policy and the SNP promise very liberal immigration into an independent Scotland. They will need it as I am sure most sensible people, and I would include myself in that group, will have no intention of visiting from anywhere else. Scotland has enough problems with poverty, poor nutrition, type 2 diabetes and alcohol abuse. Now they want to fuel their burgeoning drug problem by making them even more available.
I doubt that the SNP, a party of people who seem to lack both a sense of humour and a sense of irony, will see either in a situation where they are clamping down on ‘hate speech’ which may be harmful, including behind closed doors in your own home which will not, and decriminalising drugs which, demonstrably, are harmful. In utopian Alba you will be able to pick up your ‘stash’ with impunity and get ‘off your head’ on skunk but God help you if your local neighbourhood drug dealer overhears anything that could offend him (or her) on the basis of race, religion or skin colour. That could mean a prolonged visit to Saughton or Barlinnie*.
I hear the arguments in favour of drug decriminalisation, and I read the convoluted arguments which try to portray it as the innocuous little brother of ‘legalisation’. I do not believe all of them and even if I believed them all I would not care. Both the decriminalisation and legalisation of drugs are advocated by an odd alliance of left-wing sociologists and right-wing libertarians. For the former it is for the alleged good of society and for the latter it is for their own convenience. Politicians, of left and right, support it for the only reason any politician supports anything, they think it may win them votes. That remains to be tested but as the father of a son who was no stranger to drugs—I have witnessed at close quarters the detrimental effects on him and those around him—it would not win my vote. Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, has written regularly in The Guardian against legalisation of drugs and in favour of controls, and she has an international purview. Her reasons include the potential for an ‘epidemic’ of drug use and the ensuing loss of life. So, true to form, the SNP continue to fiddle at the fringes of public opinion while the reputation and the future of the country they purport to represent burns. Maybe it will become such a miserable place that drugs will become essential.
*famous Scottish prisons in Glasgow and Edinburgh, respectively
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
