TORY MP Ross Thomson and I clashed on BBC Question Time in the Scottish Parliament this week when he said “I feel it is time to get tougher on drugs” in response to a fellow audience member’s question about drug-related deaths in Scotland.

The question highlighted a troubling issue of national concern – drug deaths are spiralling. In 2017, Scotland had the highest drug-related death rate in the EU. Question Time pannelist Val McDermid was right to call this “a shameful statistic”. Scots are more than six times more likely to die from drug-related causes (934 deaths in 2017) compared to road traffic accidents (146 deaths).

READ MORE: Prime time TV is clearly where Tory MP Ross Thomson belongs

Drug-related deaths are concentrated in certain areas, such as the most deprived areas of Glasgow, where I live. They stem from complex root causes, often accompanied by physical and mental health problems, trauma, poverty, social isolation and lack of community resources. The reality is a far cry from Ross Thomson’s baffling response on Question Time about being able to order cocaine – a drug not highly prevalent in Scotland – via an app faster than a pizza in Glasgow.

So I spoke up and challenged Thomson’s Conservative “get tough” on drugs and crime rhetoric as fundamentally counter-productive and having costly consequences that we simply cannot afford. Peddling a punitive response to drug users might make some Conservatives feel better, but it doesn’t make us as a country better off, nor does it make us safer.

There’s ample international evidence and a crescendo of expert voices warning that punitive “get tough” responses to drug users don’t work. They are hollow pyrrhic victories in an all too costly and deadly war on drugs.

As a criminologist, I’ve spent years in Scotland and Australia visiting drug rehabs, courts, prisons, justice social work, police, local authorities and charities working with people who use drugs. I’ve written a book on supporting people to leave drugs and crime behind. I’ve also been a victim of a non-violent drug-related crime by someone who was given a jail sentence.

My challenge to Thomson was this: Scotland does not need prisons full of drug users. Scotland’s prisons are already full – we have one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Europe – and there are drugs in prison. The last thing that families affected by a loved one’s drug use need is to have to go and visit them in prison, and shoulder added responsibilities, stigma and stress from that.

Drug use should be framed, first and foremost, as an issue of public health and welfare, not an issue of criminality. Where drug users do come before the courts for low-level drug-related offending, they are best supported to leave drugs and crime behind by health and justice services in the community, not prisons.

Ironically it is Ross Thomson’s hometown of Aberdeen that is leading the nation in trying to move away from stigmatising punitive approaches, and instead use local partnerships and innovative problem-solving approaches to help address the underlying issues and support people to change. I was part of the research team to review one of these problem-solving approaches where justice, social work and health practitioners and services work together – and the findings are very promising. Other places across Scotland have been urged by researchers and policymakers to learn from the good work that’s happening in Aberdeen and consider following its lead.

Another progressive option which has garnered hard-won support across political party lines is the prospect of a drug consumption and safe injecting facility in Glasgow, where rates of drug-related deaths and blood-borne virus infections are high. Yet the UK Government has blocked it.

Ultimately, these issues are deep-seated and complex. We need courage of conviction among leaders and community groups willing to work together to resolve them. We also need more funding and resources to the frontline services, especially treatment support.

What we don’t need is to reduce the issue to a matter of rhetoric and political point-scoring where individuals, families and communities pay an all too heavy price. There is no justice in that.

Dr Hannah Graham is a Criminologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Stirling