A landmark report has called for a new approach to how drug addiction is addressed in Scotland. ’Changing Lives’ published by the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce, advocates a less punitive strategy based on improved treatment rather than stigma and criminalisation – ’Fear, judgement, punishment and shame must be replaced by compassion, connection and communication’ as the report’s foreword puts it.

The report includes refreshing recommendations – for instance, legislation to support the introduction of licenced drugs consumption faculties, and easy access to services for people to anonymously submit substances for testing. The Scottish government is called upon to publish a plan, within six months, on how it intends to implement the report’s proposals.

By contrast, UK government thinking is years behind. A recent flagship joint-department paper setting out the government’s plan to cut drug related crime ’From Harm to Hope. A ten year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives’ contains little that is fundamentally new and comes nowhere near the imaginative thinking that informs the “Changing Lives” report.

The UK government paper has been largely forgotten in the political turmoil since it was published in December, and may be entirely forgotten if, as is always possible, the government loses interest. But the courageous Scottish report is a reminder of just how far the UK trails behind many other counties on this issue.

Back in December, then health secretary Sajid Javid described ’From Harm to Hope’ as ’the most ambitious strategy in a generation’ to address drug misuse. The measures included £780 million in funding over three years for addiction treatment, 54,000 additional ’treatment places’, 24,000 more people ’into long-term drug-free recovery’ and the closure of 2,000 ’county lines’.

The headline figures sound impressive, but look beneath the surface and there is little evidence the initiative is anywhere near as ambitious as claimed.

Some of the measures are sensible enough and should provide much needed help to people with drug related health problems. Any increased investment in prevention and treatment is welcome, particularly after a decade of austerity decimated the support available to the most vulnerable of drug users.

However, anyone looking for the fundamental switch in approach in the way the state addresses drug misuse that is needed to actually cut crime and save lives will be disappointed. UK government policy is, shamefully, still anchored in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 - legislation now half a century old and inspired by moral outrage, rather than concern about public health. The regime is still predominantly punitive. By criminalising all commonly used drugs (and recently what were previously considered ’legal highs’) it is ludicrously out of step with current everyday reality. Consequently, it attracts widespread derision or indifference, while people whose lives and health are damaged by drugs receive only punishment and public humiliation through prosecution. No government since 1971 has dared to adopt a more humane and rational approach.

Scotland may now be heading in that direction but in doing so it would be leaving the rest of the UK behind. The ’Changing Lives’ report admits that the criminal justice system, and imprisonment in particular, are as much a cause of drug misuse as a solution; “From Harm to Hope” falls back on the discredited mantra of enforcement and coercion.

How would an honest, humane approach to drug use work in practice? Unsurprisingly, there is much debate over this, including amongst those who recognise that the current law is a proven failure. It is worth noting the Scottish proposals do not advocate complete decriminalisation. Even if the Government and judiciary had the vision and bravery to make radical changes, we would be entering unfamiliar scientific and legal territory. But there is broad consensus amongst progressive thinkers about what the essentials for a sensible evidence-based drugs policy would be. These are firstly, a reshaping of policy that treats drugs as a health crisis not a criminal or moral scourge. Secondly, a massive programme of investment in education and treatment programmes (and far greater than that proposed in “From Harm to Hope”). Thirdly, a move away from punitive sentencing, particularly short prison sentences.

The logical destination of this thinking is some form of legalisation of drug use based on regulated supply – admittedly a drastic change of approach, and for many an unpalatable one. But the current system is plainly failing everyone.

The UK government paper acknowledges this, on the one hand trumpeting the seizure of ’over 123 tonnes’ of cocaine by the National Crime Agency over the previous year, but only four pages earlier warning that ’The global supply of drugs is higher than ever before’, including into the UK. Thus government policy openly admits its in-built futility, but cannot bring itself to address it.

The UK government’s latest strategy contains a welcome commitment to spending on treatment and support, but on close analysis it amounts to a change in emphasis, not a change in policy. ’Changing Lives’ goes much further but still fails to confront the key issue of criminalisation, and as it concedes, repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act is not within the Scottish government’s remit. As such, while both reports may help address the misery caused by addiction, even if fully implemented the problem is likely to remain essentially unsolved. Meanwhile, it is government policy, not drugs, that will continue to ruin more lives.

Martin Rackstraw is a partner at law firm Russell-Cooke