SDF provides an overview of range of what we do and who we work with to help prevent damaging drug use and promoting sustainable recovery from drug problems.

La SDF está principalmente preocupada por las muertes relacionadas con las drogas en toda Europa, por el nivel de infecciones virales transmitidas por la sangre y por el impacto creciente del consumo de psico-estimulantes.

Le SDF est principalement préoccupé par les décès causés par la drogue à travers l’Europe, par le niveau d’infections virales transmissibles par voie sanguine, et par l’impact grandissant de l’usage de psychostimulants.

Scottish Drugs Forum

Scotland has made an inadequate response to the on-going public health emergency and now faces the emerging threat of a drug supply containing new synthetic opioids. This situation demands the urgent implementation of the full range of evidence-based practice and policy now.

All individuals and organisations must work to deliver the National Mission to Reduce Drug Deaths.

It is evident that Scotland needs to adopt the practice and policy measures developed in other countries to address the very issues we now face. Therefore we must, without further delay, implement an emergency plan to:

Support positive health-focused engagement with people who use drugs through a process of 

decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for personal use

 through the use of alternatives to prosecution for ALL people, for ALL drugs in ALL circumstances.

Monitor changes in drug supply – including dangerous synthetic opioids – and ensure people involved in drug use know the risks associated with the substances being supplied through street supply. This can partly be achieved by providing 

 where people can submit small samples of drugs for analysis and then receive a list of the substances these street drugs contain.

Ensure that people experiencing drug problems and using drugs in street-based environments and other people particularly vulnerable to harm, including fatal and near-fatal overdose, can have immediate support in case of an overdose and access to information and support services through the provision of 

 wherever in Scotland there are people who would be protected and supported by using them.

Ensure people most vulnerable to fatal overdose involving opiates (the vast majority of fatal overdoses in Scotland) are able to access effective means to prevent death in the event of overdose through 

maximising Scotland’s national naloxone programme

 which includes ensuring people are supplied with naloxone at every opportunity, with a strong emphasis on peer-led distribution.

Attract a far higher proportion of people who could benefit from treatment into treatment by delivering 

accessible and acceptable treatment services

 grounded in connection and compassion for all people experiencing drug problems.

Scottish Drugs Forum statement on Scotland’s public health emergency

 Conference 10.00 – 16.00 (Registration from 09.30)


 The Grand Room & Grand Foyer, Grand Central Hotel, 99 Gordon St, Glasgow G1 3SF

SDF unites stakeholder perspectives which are too often marginalised in drugs debates. This event will identify shared themes, interests and issues of concern and explore means by which these stakeholders can become empowered to achieve Scotland’s national mission to reduce drug-related deaths and improve lives.

This conference will prioritise the perspectives of marginalised stakeholders and have sessions dedicated to their perspectives, interests and concerns. These sessions will foster inclusive and engaging whole-room discussion as well as expert presentations.

SDF can offer a limited number of free places at this event.

Priority will be given to people with experience of a drug problem; who are not employed in drugs or related work areas; and who have been unable to secure funding locally through their local services or Alcohol and Drug Partnership or other organisation.

Anyone wanting to apply for a free place should contact 

Places are limited and this is likely to be heavily oversubscribed.

Applications must be made before Friday 4th August 2023

Anyone who is being offered a free place will be contacted and need to confirm that they will attend the conference.

Supporting Change: Amplifying Voices - Scottish Drugs Forum's conference

As organisations that work in drug policy and harm reduction, we welcome the evidence-based proposals in the new report published by the Scottish Government proposing a road map for the future of drug policy and law in Scotland. We share the view of the report that drug policy based on health and human rights achieves better outcomes for individuals, their families, communities and wider society.

In recognition of the damaging global impact of criminalisation, the United Nations 

 a legal and policy position that promotes the reduction of harm and the decriminalisation of people who use drugs. We welcome this report as a step towards the UN’s position, and the development of effective policy and services in Scotland.

Ending criminal sanctions for people in possession of drugs for personal use; the provision of a full range of harm reduction services and support; and improvement in the accessibility and acceptability of treatment services for people who experience drug dependency are all required to address the public health emergency that Scotland has been in for some years.

Scotland has made progress on all these fronts, and yet the prevalence of people experiencing drug dependence, and the number of drug related deaths remain very high by international standards, underpinned by persistent broader health inequalities. Further innovation and investment is clearly required.

We further support the proposed evidence-led review into how the use of drugs, their production and supply could be regulated. This review would inform a debate around wider reforms to drugs legislation.

We welcome the recognition of the harmful role that criminalisation, poverty and stigma, play in the lives of so many. People who use drugs, especially those who experience dependence, face discrimination every day, and the Scottish Government’s desire to end the exclusion of this group from equality legislation is to be commended.

We also welcome the Scottish Government’s acknowledgment and commitment to centring those with living and lived experience in policy making and implementation.

UK legislation and regulations, especially the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, serve as an impediment to many of the urgently needed evidence-based reforms highlighted in the report, including the decriminalisation of drug possession; the provision of supervised drug consumption facilities and drug safety checking services; and even heroin assisted treatment.

Scotland has developed innovative responses using its own legal system, police force, healthcare system and civic society. Progress has already been made in terms of the extension of recorded warnings for drug possession, policing arrangements and the legal basis for injecting equipment provision services and its world-leading take home naloxone programme. Scotland must also use these same assets to deliver supervised drug consumption rooms and drug checking services as a matter of urgency.

Drug-related deaths are at an all-time high, in Scotland and across the UK. The UK Government must either work to reform legislation to enable the vital reforms proposed in this report across all four nations, or sufficiently devolve powers to allow each country to enact these policies themselves in order to save lives, and support communities.

INPUD – International Network of People who Use Drugs

EuroNPUD – European Network of People who Use Drugs

Jason Kew, Senior Innovative Practice Officer,

IDPC joins NGO coalition's response to Scottish Government's report on drug policy reform

'There were maybe 20 services, mostly two people and a dog,’ says outgoing Scottish Drugs Forum CEO Dave Liddell of Scotland’s drugs sector in the mid ‘80s. ‘There were no local planning structures or anything, so you had almost a blank sheet to develop policies and ideas.’ 

He’s retiring this month, having worked at SDF since it was set up in 1986 – the longest job he’d had before ‘was about 18 months,’ he says, so his tenure has safely beaten that record. He’d previously trained as a biochemist, then become a social worker before going to work for SCODA, the forerunner of DrugScope. 

Parts of Scotland were already in the grip of a serious heroin problem when SDF was set up, and he was one of the people calling for the establishment of needle exchanges. ‘There was a complete lack of knowledge in terms of the development of anything like that, but obviously HIV drove those changes so even the Tory government at the time had to agree to needle exchanges being developed.’

Change of scene: Former Scottish Drugs Forum CEO David Liddell's final interview 

 Platform, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G2 8DL

This conference will bring together a diverse range of speakers from across the UK and Europe to examine the valuable lessons learned over the past 35 years of responding to drug-related issues, with a particular focus on the Scottish context. Equally important, the conference will take stock of our current situation and look ahead to emerging themes and challenges that lie ahead.

 Whole Systems Unit Head, Drug Policy Division, Scottish Government 

 – Professor of Addiction Medicine and retired GP 

 Professor in Psychology, Bangor University and former SDF chair 

 Professor of Substance Use and Inclusion Health, University of Stirling

 Research assistant, University of Stirling

 – Associate Medical Director, Addiction Services at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

 International Network and Programme Director Correlation-European Harm Reduction Network

 Principal Scientist at European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

 Physician and Safer Supply Prescriber at London Intercommunity Health Centre, London, Ontario, Canada

Shaping Scotland’s Drug Policy Conference

There has been substantial progress in the discussion and implementation of decriminalisation of drugs in the past 10 years. The issue is more broadly discussed and is more central to wider discourse around drug use and drug harms. Despite this progress, there remain barriers to ending criminalisation and preventing the consequent harms for people who use drugs and wider society.

SDF will be hosting a webinar to coincide with the publication of a new report, 

Working To Decriminalise People Who Use Drugs: Learning From Decriminalisation Efforts In 5 International Jurisdictions

. This report has been prepared for Ana Liffey Drugs Project by the Scottish Drugs Forum with support and funding of The Open Society Foundation. The report evaluates the recent decriminalisation and advocacy efforts in Scotland, Poland, Norway, Ireland and Maine (USA). These jurisdictions were selected as they had hosted decriminalisation advocacy projects funded by Open Society Foundation (OSF).

This webinar will cover the international policy context of decriminalisation and the findings from the report. Panel members will share the learning from good practice examples from their jurisdiction. There will be an extended discussion of the challenges and learning from implementing these changes.

Chair – Tony Duffin, Ana Liffey Drug Project, Dublin, Ireland

Introduction – Matt Wilson, Open Society Foundations

Brendan Hughes – European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

Kenneth Arctander – RIO (Norwegian Users’ Association in The Field of Alcohol and Drugs) and Norwegian Public Drug Policy Reform Committee (Norway)

Magdalena Dąbkowska – Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland)

Courtney Ross – Recovery Voices, Maine (USA)

Learning together: Progressing decriminalisation in Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Poland and Maine

Women who use drugs face multiple barriers to accessing harm reduction services including stigma, gender-based violence, criminalisation, the experiences of selling and exchanging sex, sexual and reproduction health, and safe housing. Ultimately, there is a lack of gender specific information, resources and services for women who use drugs.

This online event will highlight some of the key issues facing women who use drugs in our society, and showcase examples from Scotland and internationally of ways to work with women to reduce the harms they experience.

The aim of the event will be to:

1. Give focus to specific needs of women in harm reduction
2. Showcase examples of good policy/practice
3. Create discussion and increase enthusiasm around improving harm reduction policy, practice, and resources to best suit the needs of women in Scotland

This conference will be chaired by Dr Aileen O’Gorman, Programme Leader: Contemporary Drug and Alcohol Studies, University of the West of Scotland

Speakers include:
• Claire Longmuir, Policy and Practice Lead for Harm Reduction, Simon Community Scotland
• Catriona Matheson, Freelance Consultant Researcher and Professor (part-time) in Substance Use, University of Stirling
• Hannah Boyle, Women's Harm Reduction Coordinator, Simon Community Scotland
• Janice Abbott, Chief Executive Officer, Atira Women’s Resource Society, Vancouver, Canada

International Women’s Day online conference: Harm reduction for women who use drugs

For too long public attitudes, political debate and government policy in Scotland failed to take full account of the real drivers of problem drug use. A drug problem is neither a lifestyle choice nor a personal failing; drug problems originate in a lack of support to parents, families and vulnerable young people; the failure of health and other services to engage people in need of support and in Scotland’s social, income and health inequalities that result from poverty.

Recently, a consensus has emerged that begins to recognise all this and address problem drug use and the harms caused by drug use as a public health issue.

Scotland needs a new drugs strategy that reflects this reality. Scotland’s new drugs strategy should provide a full response to our drug overdose deaths public health crisis, improve the overall quality of life of people with a drug problem and prevent problem drug use by supporting vulnerable young people and their families. This strategy needs to articulate with government poverty, equalities and other strategies.

Drugs: Policy and Aims - A Manifesto for Scotland

The EAER project is a partnership of four European organisations which have aimed to use their collective knowledge to create resources that would help people in recovery access employment and to share knowledge and practice with other organisations working in employability projects with people who have a history of problem substance use.

This event will highlight the resources created for the project and presentations will include;


• Examples of good practice in employability and recovery
• An overview of a good practice guide to training, support, and qualifications across Europe.
• EAER online platform which will host the EAER project with a number of interactive features
• SocialMe and digital identity


• To deliver positive and long-lasting through building more employability and employment opportunities for people who use or have used substances
• To deliver positive and long-lasting effects on people participating in the programme through increased knowledge, skills, and motivation to improve services


• Dutch Foundation Innovation in Welfare 2 Work (Netherlands)
• Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento (Portugal)
• Comunità "La Tenda" Cooperativa Sociale (Italy)
• Scottish Drugs Forum (UK)

Scottish Drugs Forum

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