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Mike Dailly: Prisoners in Scotland need hope not needles
The inquiry runs until late August. It will examine the effectiveness of drug detection and prevention strategies and the role of organised criminal networks in prison narcotic supply.
Worryingly, the committee has heard that around 17 per cent of prisoners who weren't drug users before incarceration become substance users once in jail.
Drugs enter prisons through various ways, including the use of drones to fly them onto the prison estate. Synthetic cannabinoids are prevalent along with bromazolam, benzodiazepines, cocaine and steroids.
Drugs come in a range of formats, including paper, card, powder or a waxy substance.
Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive officer at the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) gave evidence to the committee on May 28.
The SDF is a Scottish charity whose vision is for 'A Scotland free from drug-related health and social harm'. Its funding comes ostensibly from the Scottish Government and other statutory bodies.
At the committee's May meeting, Ms Horsburgh said: 'We need to have the uncomfortable discussion about what harm reduction in prison means. Does it mean providing safer injecting equipment or safer smoking equipment? Does it mean having discussions with people about how they can use their drugs more safely?'
The proposal made a stir. Are we now suggesting supplying free needles to prisoners to inject themselves with drugs? Giving out free vapes so people can smoke cannabis in jail?
Annmarie Ward, chief executive officer of Faces and Voice for Recovery UK (FAVOR) believes the SDF's position is nonsensical.
She said: 'Apparently, the answer to Scotland's prison drug crisis isn't less drugs in prisons, but more syringes to help the problem go smoothly. It's like solving knife crime by handing out free whetstones'.
Annmarie notes that the Scottish Prison Service say violence in prisons is rising. Drugs are being flown in on drones. Inmates are vaping benzos and mixing synthetic opioids into their tea. She ridicules the SDF's answer to this problem by making drug use easier for inmates.
We need to ask: Is this all we have to offer people in prison? Have we given up and now seek managerial solutions for human decline?
For Annmarie Ward, the problem in Scotland is the lack of access to abstinence treatment, detox and rehabilitation services. Which is why FAVOR have backed a Right to Addiction Recovery Bill – currently being considered by the Scottish Parliament - introduced by Douglas Ross MSP.
In England, some prisons offer abstinence-based recovery wings, acknowledging that going into prison might be a vital chance to break the cycle of drug use. We don't offer this in Scotland. Why not?
As Annmarie Ward said: 'Prisons should be places where people are interrupted in their addiction, not supported in it. Where the chaos stops, not where it's managed more hygienically.
"Needles and vape kits in Barlinnie won't restore dignity. They'll entrench dependency and signal, loud and clear, that the state has given up on these men'.
If we want to achieve real harm reduction, we need to give human beings hope. We need to give people access to detox and rehabilitation.
