Edinburgh enjoys crime reduction following drug ban

The Scottish capital is currently enjoying a significant drop in both crime and health issues since the ban on legal high drugs came into force.

Previous behaviour in Edinburgh had been labelled as bizarre, with extreme violence being connected with users of legal highs in the city’s community centres. Edinburgh City Council will be presented with a report that shows how a pre-emptive ban, brought in a whole year before the nationwide blanket ban that came into force in May, resulted in a reduction in antisocial behaviour. Among a wide variety of incidents surrounding the use of legal highs, the most serious included the stabbing of a police officer, a suicide, and a siege.

The author of the report, Rob McCulloch-Graham, who is also the chief officer of the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, commented on the changing situation and the extensive use of the stimulant ethalphendrate with “Local evidence suggests that between January and October 2014, there were 39 incidents where the police were called and the person was taken to A&E, as well as a number of incidents of violence linked to extreme behaviour. In summary, the introduction of the temporary banning order for ethalphendrate in April 2015 had a significant impact on the availability and use of this drug.”

Police are paying visits to legal high sellers throughout Scotland as a follow-up to the ban that has made it illegal to sell psychoactive substances. The ban makes it a criminal offence to manufacture and sell psychoactive substances, but does not make it illegal to be in possession of them.