 Maes i'n rhaid i ddweud inviteisio i gyd yn gweithio i ysgolodau hanfod i gyda'r ymarfer o'r ymínig wrthdiol o'r erdiliau oherwydd, lle i chi ysgolodau hwnnw i gael i gael i gael i gyfrifudd oас yn yr eu cyfnodau, pan diweddig i'r ferdlockwr. Rwy'n meddwl i gychwyn i'r adnoddau newid o'r ddraen o'r ffrindsphoesu, 1 2 3 7 9, setting out a revised business programme for today and Thursday. If anyone objects, please say so now. I call on Jovis Patrick to move the motion. Formally moved. Thank you very much. No one seems to object. The question therefore is that motion 12379 be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. We turn now to the next item in this, which is topical questions and one question today from Liam McArthur. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government whether its new drug strategy will seek to support, rather than penalise, people in possession and intending to personally use small amounts of drugs. The new strategy will prioritise the health needs of those in our society, harmed by their substance use, while working with Police Scotland and others to use the law against those who seek to profit from that. There are a number of outcomes available to the police, prosecutors and the courts to avoid where appropriate penalisation. Those outcomes include recorded police warnings, diversion from prosecution and rehabilitative court orders, such as drug treatment and testing orders. Prosecution decisions are, of course, for independent prosecutors, and sentencing decisions are a matter for the independent courts. However, the law here is reserved under the Misuse of Drugs Act, but those available outcomes reflect the fact that it is not often in the public, always in the public interest to punish. To be clear, the Scottish Government wants to prevent the harm that comes from people using drugs, adopting a public health approach to tackle the challenges that Scotland faces and being innovative in our solutions, irrespective of whether they may seem initially controversial or unpopular. That is why I will be meeting with the UK Government to discuss primarily Glasgow's efforts to establish a supervised injecting facility, along with wider issues around the Misuse of Drugs Act. Liam McArthur. I thank the minister for that response. Dr Roy Robertson was right to say that it is time to, quote, support rather than penalise people who misuse drugs. The police agree that it is senseless to send someone caught in possession of drugs for their own personal use to prison. Figures that I recently acquired through a parliamentary question showed that it still happens in over 200 occasions a year—thousands more are handed fines. What is the point of sending people whose only crime is misusing drugs to somewhere such as HMP Addiewell, where one study showed that half of those were released tested positive for illegal drugs? Does the minister agree and will the Scottish Government's strategy implement a shift to treatment and education? I absolutely appreciate the way in which Liam McArthur has articulated the issue. We value very much the comments from Roy about his role on our PADS group. He provides a lot of advice to us in developing our policies around the issue. Of course, we are refreshing our drug and alcohol strategy—it will be a new strategy—and absolutely will recognise that, for many people who have addiction problems, it does not necessarily mean that they should be punished for that and penalised through the court processes, there is a requirement to recognise the holistic needs of people who require help and support around the isolation they may feel, the trauma that they have experienced in their lives and a whole host of other issues that require tackling. The points more generally that Liam McArthur articulates will take us forward and be seen through our new strategy approach. I thank the minister for that response. He refers to the strategy agreed as part of the budget deal with the Conservatives back in 2008. Since then, we have seen drug-related deaths at a record high, drug-related hospitalisations up 50 per cent over the last decade. There are alternatives to imprisoning people. Ministers could have done more before now. The motivation for backing drug reform should be the tsunami in drug-related harm in Scotland. Will the Government therefore put it has the powers and flexibility to avoid reform stalling because of an argument about powers with Westminster? Will the minister seek and publish independent legal advice on just how far they can go towards the radical reform that we need to see? Thank you for the supplementary question. The rise in drug deaths is absolutely something that we need to tackle head on. That is why my initial response to Liam McArthur I said that we need to be innovative in our solutions even if they seem to be or seem to be controversial or unpopular initially because it is not tolerable to see the drug death total rise. However, there is an issue of understanding that group of people who have been using drugs for a number of years, who have complexity in their lives and chaos in their lives. We need to understand that and help to treat and cope and support those people as best as we can. That is why we are refreshing our drug strategy. It is also a trend that has been seen since the 1990s that has been growing because of that ageing cohort of people who are using drugs and the recognition on the number of years that they have been using drugs. That has a trend that has happened since the 1990s. The programme for government also committed an extra £20 million to ensure that we can be innovative in our approach to tackling drug addiction in Scotland and to make sure that we can embed that public health approach that we need to see happening across the country. However, we cannot get away from the fact that the misuse of drugs act is reserved and that we do not have the powers to do all the things that I think we would like to do here, a lion's share of the parliamentarians in the part that we want to do, such as Glasgow's proposals. It is not just a convenient thing for us to get out and duck out of tackling this head-on. We want to do what we can, and that is why I am seeking to engage with the UK Government to find out just what flexibility they are willing to offer. However, if they do not offer that flexibility, then we will have to ask them to devolve the powers to us here in Scotland. Thank you, minister. Those were three questions and three quite long answers. We have got seven other supplementaries on this. I would like to get them all in if we can, but we are going to stop at 14.18 to move on to the statement. We will try to be quite quick on those. Liam Kerr, please. Liam McArthur refers to Dr Robinson's recommendation that people caught with a small amount of illegal substances should no longer be prosecuted. Illegal drug use is causing real harm to people and is a blight on our communities. The answer to that problem is not a soft-touch approach. A potential dealer and user must know that they could face a criminal penalty for their actions. Will the minister take this opportunity to say to communities, to families, to law-abiding citizens that she will rule out this proposal instead focus on helping drug users abstain from using in the first place? To be quite short in my response, describing the situation and our approach as soft-touch absolutely misses the point and what we are trying to take to help vulnerable people to cope better with their addiction. I said in my initial answer to Liam McArthur that while we will seek to prioritise the health needs of those in our society harmed by their substance use, we will continue to work with Police Scotland to use the law against those who seek to profit from it. Daniel Johnson, I start by saying that Labour agrees with the broad intent of the Scottish Government on the change of emphasis from criminal justice to health for drugs. To echo Liam McArthur's point, the Government is keen to stress the areas that are outwith their control and powers. What consideration has been given by the Government and those powers? They have, for example, around police policy in practice and the role of the Crown Office in changing that emphasis from criminal justice to health, because those are areas that could have a real impact and they have control over. We have a strong police presence on our PADS group, so we absolutely explore what we can and how we can use the police and a whole host of other partners to help us deal far more effectively with those who have experienced substance use challenges in their lives. I think that it comes back to the point that we can ignore that the misuse of drugs act is reserved. It was something that I do not think that any party here called for to be devolved in the Smith commission. If I am wrong, then absolutely I will be happily to be proven wrong. We need the powers of the misuse of drugs act here to do some of the innovative things that I think that people want us to proceed with. Of course, within the powers that we have, we will absolutely explore everything. I said in my answer to Liam McArthur that even if those seem to be unpopular or uncontroversial, we will explore everything because we have a challenge here that needs to be met with public health answers. Christine Grahame is to be followed by Anas Sarwar. I am sure that a minister like me would differentiate between legalising and decriminalising. On decriminalising for possession of a small quantity of drugs, I hear what the minister has to say about the misuse of drugs act, but I would like to ask if the Government would pursue whether that could be implemented by the Crown as a policy. For example, decriminalising the use of cannabis for the alleviation of pain. I happily get back to Christine Grahame on some of the issues that she raised around pain management. Of course, there are ongoing discussions that the cabinet secretary has been having with a number of those who have had constituency interests around the alleviation that they can get for pain from drugs that may be, at the moment, classed as illegal, but there are a whole host of other ways in which we can progress some of that through the systems that are there to enable drugs to come online to enable people to get the help and support for their conditions. As I have said, however, in my previous answer to Liam McArthur, there are a number of alternative outcomes available to prosecutors because we recognise that it is not always in the best interest, the public interest, to punish. Again, I will reiterate that the main broad thrust of our approach in our new drug and alcohol strategy is to tackle the challenges that we face in a public health manner. I saw a word to be followed by John Finnie. As part of the change of emphasis to health rather than criminal justice, the health minister will have seen news reports that suggest that those addicted to drugs are waiting weeks for appointments, so technically within the target but are then waiting up to six months for treatment. Will the minister commit to look into those shocking waiting times and assure that those who need help and particularly those who are actively seeking help are not waiting months to begin their treatment? The target that was established fairly recently has been one of the successes around the current strategy. However, we absolutely understand that there is more that needs to be done, and that is why the £20 million that has been pledged through the programme for government will be able to ensure that we can make that medical response as appropriate and as timely to help those people who are incredibly vulnerable who cannot wait for that treatment. The new opportunity that we have is through the new strategy. We have also commissioned ISD to develop an integrated drug and alcohol information system that will also help us to capture the information framework clearly and effectively. John Finnie, to be followed by Neil Findlay. It is simply not good enough for the Tories to trot out just to say no. I note and indeed we welcome the minister's plan meeting with the UK Government, but can the minister please outline meetings that have already taken place and detail what was discussed with the UK Government? I have been attempting to meet the UK Government for some time on this matter. I will endeavour to keep the member informed as those meetings progress. We hope to have one in the coming months and to ensure that they understand that this is not just something that we are asking for constitutional convenience, but that there is absolutely a real driver here, the rising drug deaths and the fact that we need to meet the challenges that are particularly faced in Glasgow through a public health response. I will happily keep the member informed as those meetings progress to make sure that the UK Government understands that we have largely parliamentary backing here for the proposals that Glasgow wants to take forward and for us to make a real improvement in the way in which we tackle the challenges that are being faced in Glasgow. Everybody knows that drugs policy is failing. More people are dying and the streets are awash with drugs. Will the minister look at working across Parliament on this vital issue in which she considers co-ordinating across party deputation with the support of health and social policy specialists to visit Portugal to see how that country has reversed its appalling rates of drug deaths, infection and addiction? Will she please ignore the irresponsible stupidity of Liam Kerr? There are a number of things that I broadly agree with in what Neil Findlay said around learning from other countries and the ability to work across Parliament. I think that we have a meeting coming up soon, so we can engage with Neil Findlay on the issue that I know that he feels incredibly strongly about. I think that it is irresponsible to use the language that was described in Liam Kerr's question, because it is a much more nuanced and important issue that we need to ensure that we approach it in a mature and level-headed way. That is why I have engaged with officials in Australia. That is why, when I was recently in Dublin, I went to visit the people who are taking forward supervised injecting facilities in Dublin and understand the challenges that they face and learn from them when they are taking forward those innovative solutions. We will of course look at what Portugal is taking forward in their own country. My commitment is to work across the Parliament to ensure that we have crossed-party where possible consensus on our new strategy to ensure that we can deliver the best outcomes for the people of Scotland, in particular those people who are incredibly vulnerable. Thank you very much.