Head of drug deaths taskforce in Scotland rejects ‘punishment’ approach

Drug users prepare cocaine before injecting in Glasgow, Scotland. Strang told the Guardian that drug dependent people need to be treated with care and compassion not stigma and discrimination. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The head of Scotland’s drug deaths taskforce has rejected an approach that seeks to punish “people out of addiction” as he called for the justice system to adopt a public health approach to spiralling fatalities.

Launching a hard-hitting report condemning “woefully inadequate” underfunding of services, David Strang said: “Addiction itself is not a crime and you can’t punish people out of addiction”