Prisons in Scotland are facing a new wave of psychoactive drugs smuggled in by drones, leading to violent and aggressive behaviour among inmates. According to Fiona Cruickshanks, the governor of HMP Edinburgh, synthetic drugs and new forms of “street” benzodiazepines are having extreme reactions due to their increased potency. Although traditional narcotics such as heroin and cocaine have been replaced by new psychoactive substances since 2017, the potency of synthetic cannabinoids known as “spice” and counterfeit benzodiazepines are causing particular problems.
Prisoners using these drugs do not respond to the effects of overdose reversal drug Naloxone. This has led to an increased number of ambulance callouts at Scottish prisons. Ms. Cruickshanks added that “Individuals who will take substances can become unresponsive very quickly. One minute, staff can be delivering CPR to an individual and, five minutes later, that same individual can be presenting as extremely aggressive, extremely violent and staff are having to deal with the two extremes within a matter of minutes. It’s a really complex, a really challenging environment. It puts a lot of pressure on resources.”
Moreover, although drugs were still being thrown over the perimeter fences and passed during visits at Edinburgh, the growing use of drones has become a “big problem.” Drones are being used to smuggle drugs and weapons into prisons. Until last month, Ms. Cruickshanks was the Scottish Prison Service’s head of operations and public protection, with the responsibility of stemming the flow of drugs into prisons, as well as gang violence.
Reducing demand is essential. Ms. Cruickshank said that HMP Edinburgh is “increasingly focused on recovery.” Ms. Constance added: “We should do everything we can to disrupt the supply of drugs both within prisons and in our community. But we also need to be working to reduce demand for drugs, and that’s why the recovery work that is going on in this prison here in Edinburgh but also elsewhere in Scotland is so vital in terms of supporting prisoners on their road to recovery, but also on their road to rehabilitation.
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