One of Scotland’s most senior former judges has called for the legalisation of heroin and other illicit drugs.

Lord McCluskey said government policy had failed to cut the number of drug deaths or level of drug-related crime.

The former solicitor general for Scotland and High Court judge added that he was appalled by the effect that illegal substances were having on Scotland’s communities.

McCluskey, who defended Sir Paul McCartney against drugs charges in 1973, said he believed that heroin should be given to addicts in controlled medical settings to cut off the flow of money to organised crime. “If people are addicted to heroin, give them heroin. I’m not suggesting you sell it at newsagents, but if you were to offer it to addicts in a medically controlled setting, there would be no criminal market,” he said.

McCluskey said treating drugs as a criminal issue was wrong, and they should be regarded as a health problem.

“Legal punishments of people involved in drugs don’t apparently deter them and the number of deaths constantly rises,” he said.

“If you have had a policy in place for half a century and all it has done is increase the number of drug addicts and the number of tribes associated with drugs, then it’s time to rethink that policy.”

McCluskey is backing the Transform Drug Policy Foundation (TDPF), which is campaigning for the legalisation of all drugs.

TDPF is the Scottish branch of Transform, a Bristol-based organisation, and has been established by cousins Jolene Crawford and Katrina Thornton following the drugs-related death of a relative. The foundation is committed to “ending blanket prohibition in favour of better control through regulation”.

Iain Banks, the author and an advocate of drugs legalisation, has become a patron of the organisation, whose supporters also include drugs policy experts and former police officers.

“It’s long past time that Scotland faced the truth about drugs and the extra level of damage their illegality and prohibition imposes on individuals and society,” said Banks. “The sort of rational debate and fact-based response to drug use that Transform has been championing throughout the UK for years needs to be brought to focus on Scotland.”

TDPF Scotland and its supporters are launching a new book setting out plans for drug legalisation in Glasgow later this week.

The book, After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation, was written by Steve Rolles, Transform’s head of research, and is described as providing a detailed roadmap showing how to regulate drugs legally, and why.

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