Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:11 pm on 2 October 2018.
Well, tackling drug misuse is a complex issue. We've always seen it in terms of health rather than in terms of it being a crime. The suppliers and the dealers are criminals; the users are victims and they are people who need help through the health system rather than through the criminal justice system. We have, of course, the substance misuse strategy and the plans that are associated with that, and that guides what we are doing in terms of reducing the harm associated with substance misuse. In terms of misuse in prisons, well, the services are delivered in line with clinical guidance and with prison health teams.
We also have a programme called take home Naloxone that is provided to prisoners at the point of release within prisons across Wales. That's helped to target drug-related deaths in the community. Naloxone, of course, is a drug that reverses the effects of a heroin overdose or, indeed, morphine drugs and that family—overdoses of those drugs—and brings people back very quickly, in seconds, from a situation where perhaps they're in difficulty with breathing, particularly, and in danger of dying. So, being able to provide the immediate support for people to avoid dying of a drug overdose is the first step. Secondly, of course, the substance misuse strategy looks at moving people on, long term, away from the drugs that have captured their lives for many years.