Drug deaths: how the SNP tilts at windmills

This SNP administration truly behaves in a Quixotic fashion. That is to say, attacking imaginary enemies is really all the SNP has left in its arsenal

Originally printed in Think Scotland on August 18 2024

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THERE IS no problem in Scottish society where the SNP will not attempt to apportion at least a measure of blame to ‘Westminster’. But its blame-game-redux won’t solve Scotland’s illicit drug trafficking trade or drug deaths.

The determined nationalist must persevere against the interminable obstacles arrayed against them, set by the perfidious forces of unionism. Only independence can free Scotland to tackle the urgent social and economic crises befalling the oppressed peoples of North Britain.

The Scottish Government’s fixation on holding ‘Westminster’ to account over issues which are, frankly, not within its purview is certainly misanthropic. But this is nationalism we’re talking about, it to ought come as no surprise.

Critics of the SNP’s newfound support for decriminalisation to tackle drug deaths allege cynicism. They accuse the Scottish Government that after 17 years of failure it is simply attempting to re-define the optics. Shifting the conversation away from 17 years of SNP policy failure, toward perfidious ‘Westminster’ inflexibility. It is difficult to disagree with the critics, it does sound like something this administration would attempt.

But, if we’re being sincere with ourselves, the Venn diagram of those who deploy criticism of SNP policy failure on drug deaths and those expressing empathy with the victims of addiction are clearly not perfectly aligned circles.

Let’s be frank, political cynicism abounds from all corners of devolved politics.

Yet the SNP drumbeat of ‘independence’ as the solution to drug deaths and the illicit drugs trade is akin to when shaking hands it feels more like washing them.

The nationalists might present separation as analogous to when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, but voters ought to be careful. Because every silver lining has its cloud.

In the case of the Israelites, they were left to wander the desert for forty years before they reached the said ‘promised land’. Facing harsh conditions, God miraculously provided the Israelites with “bread from heaven,” called “manna.”

When it comes to tackling drug deaths and stamping out the illicit drugs trade, independence is no manna from heaven. Instead, it’s a leap of faith. A campaign slogan which ought to come with a Benny Hill laughing track.

Drug deaths

Back in September 2022 when the drug deaths revealed a Scottish rate nearly three times the UK average, the SNP was quick to decry ‘Westminster’ roadblocking safe consumption rooms.

It’s an ageing tactic, as policy failures continued to result in an escalating drug deaths epidemic across Scotland.

In 2017 for example, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership asked the then Lord Advocate to provide assurance that those involved in establishing or using these facilities would be protected from prosecution.

The Lord Advocate of the time (there have been a few) ruled what was being sought was too broad and beyond the remits of the office. This decline has served as the basis for the SNP’s political ‘get out of jail’ card. As the deaths mounted, and the illicit drugs trade continued unabated, nationalists could pivot to their blame-game-redux.

If only Scottish Government ministers had the powers to ensure safe consumption rooms… if only perfidious ‘Westminster’ (nationalist code for ‘England’) wasn’t blocking progress.

Yet, thankfully, the new Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain has called time on this routine in political cynicism. Last year a new, narrower, request was submitted and guess what? She provided the answer the SNP had avoided obtaining for years now. One which unstuck the alleged ‘Westminster’ roadblock.

According to the Lord Advocate, although it is indeed true that Westminster has control over drug laws, the issue of setting rules on prosecutions is different. Ms Bain explained that if it were decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute drug users for possession when in a consumption room, then, hey presto! The Lord Advocate even helpfully explained that she’d be more than happy to publish a policy if the SNP Government required one.

The then-Scottish Secretary Alister Jack confirmed subsequently that “the UK government will not intervene” to prevent a safer consumption room being established.

Apparently, the roadblock to Scottish Government plans was less ‘Westminster’ and more an incompetent administration which hadn’t bothered to ask the Lord Advocate for proper guidance.

The nationalists could have been proceeding with their decriminalisation a-la-Portugal plan certainly since 2021, when Lord Advocate Bain assumed her office. Or, potentially, anytime they wished over the 17 years they have enjoyed power.

Illicit drugs trade

Yet ongoing SNP attempts to distance itself from the shameful scale of drug deaths is nothing compared to its record tackling the illicit drug trade.

In 2022 the-then Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, Keith Brown, issued his ‘Serious Organised Crime strategy (SOCS)’. The SOCS promised a new steering group, which would analyse available intelligence and make recommendations for the Serious Organised Crime (SOC) Taskforce.

The SOCS did – and still does – look like a serious and welcome piece of work. And one long overdue, given that the outsize role serious organised crime plays is hardly new vis-a-vis the illicit drugs trade benighting Scotland.

Years ago, the University of Stirling’s 2011 publication on organised crime in Scotland and the criminal justice response made the link between illegal drug trafficking and human and economic cost abundantly:

“The total economic and social cost of illicit drug use in Scotland is estimated at just under £3.5bn. Costs associated with problem drug use accounts for 96% of the total and this equates to just under £61,000 per problem drug user”

That was then, and depressingly the problem continued unchanged under the SNP for a further thirteen years, and counting.

As of March 2024, “drug trafficking remains the largest criminal market in Scotland, with a majority of SOCGs [serious organised criminal gangs] involved in drug crime.”

When Keith Brown had unveiled the Scottish Government’s SOCS in 2022, for a moment it seemed that, having been in power since 2007, finally the nationalists were getting serious. That was until March 2023 when new First Minister, the hapless Humza, issued Keith Brown his marching orders, to replace him with Angela Constance. Sadly, Ms Constance has an unhelpful resemblance to Don Quixote’s eponymous hero.

As drug trafficking “remains the largest criminal market in Scotland”, it will take more than our Quixotic Doña Constance’s tilting at windmills to rescue the situation.

Reading Angela Constance Ministerial Foreword to the ‘National Mission on Drug Deaths’, you’d be forgiven for not realising the SOCS even existed. Ms Constance says nothing regarding the role that tackling serious organised crime should play regarding the national mission to tackle drug deaths.

Back in 2023 Ms Constance visited the Serious Organised Crime Campus as if she were a foreign dignitary. Speaking of how “pleased” she was “with the new guidance that has been published”, you would be forgiven for not realising she is the Justice Secretary. Instead, behaving as if she were on a ministerial away-day, she waxed lyrical with excitement about “the opportunity to chair the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce”.

Our Justice Secretary spoke more like a commentator as opposed to the Cabinet Secretary in charge. In this way Ms Constance hoped nobody might realise it’s really her own party, and now her, singularly failing to pass muster. It was as if Doña Quixote was suddenly claiming she had never tilted at windmills.

When the eponymous hero Don Quixote and his loyal servant Sancho Panza “came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain”, the would-be-knight rallies crying out “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants?”

As Quixote prepared to do battle with his imaginary giants, little Sancho queried “What giants?”, as he could see only windmills.

Tilting at windmills, that is to say, attacking imaginary enemies, is really all the SNP has left in its arsenal.

This 17-year-long SNP administration truly behaves in a Quixotic fashion.

It has used its time (and your money) to routinely pursue issues more reflective of its own hubris and power than any desire to charge at any of the real giants undermining contemporary Scotland.

Independence is the manna from heaven that will resolve our drug deaths and illicit drug trafficking. Except that it likely wouldn’t, given the same lot with the same attitudes would be in charge. Dorothy Bain resolved that, be they the right or wrong policies, we can solve our problems now with the devolved powers as they currently stand.

That’s the thing about charging at political windmills… you often end up tilting at them alone, as the SNP seems determined to discover.

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