The government’s response to @CommonsScotAffs report on problem drug use, led by Kit Maltouse, is mostly a shoddy piece of work. You can read it at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmscotaf/698/69802.htm. Here are some of the lowlights, with one partial highlight in the final tweet of this thread.

The committee called on govt to declare a public health emergency of drug-related deaths, as others have also done https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(19)30209-3/fulltext. Malthouse refuses, but gives no reason for this, despite acknowledging ‘extremely concerning’ numbers of deaths

Malthouse response states high death rates have ‘origins in problematic drug use which started decades ago’, without noting who was PM in that decade. Clue: she deliberately deindustrialised Scotland and the parts of England and Wales where drug deaths are highest.

The govt response claims that UK drug policy is ‘balanced’ and ‘evidence-based’, but fails to mention #harmreduction, which is the pillar of drug policy which has the most evidence that it saves lives.

Malthouse states, ‘tough enforcement is a fundamental part of our drug strategy’. But the government’s own evaluation of its drug strategy found little evidence that enforcement works.

To quote that evaluation: ‘There is, in general, a lack of robust evidence on the impact of activity to restrict supply to users, and some evidence of lack of impact for some specific activity types’. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/628100/Drug_Strategy_Evaluation.PDF (pdf)

The response states that ‘a UK Drugs Ministerial Meeting will be held’ to follow on from the drug summit held in Glasgow in *February*. I wonder how many people have died of drug overdoses since then.

The committee heard evidence that welfare sanctions ‘drive people further away from support and entrench them in a position of dependence and disability.’ In response, Malthouse just repeats the unevidenced DWP line on welfare ‘reform’.