The smoking ban in Scottish jails has been called a success by scientists who found there was no rise in mental health medication due to the ban, reports The Daily Record.

A landmark study has shown that since the smoking ban was implemented in 2018, medical treatments had been reduced and that jails had not seen a rise in mental health medication. Prisons had one of the highest smoking rates in Scotland with around 70 per cent of prisoners admitting to regularly using tobacco in 2017 – three times as many people as outside of jail, according to the Daily Record.
The new study, which is part of the Tobacco In Prisons research project, looked at over 44,000 prisoners who were incarcerated between 2014 and 2019 and were given nicotine replacement therapy after the ban.
“Implementation of the smoke-free policy resulted in a substantial increase in the use of medications for quitting smoking and reductions in medications for short-term health conditions related to smoking,” said author Dr Emily Tweed.
Deborah Arnott, of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Smoke-free prisons are a success story.”
“There was trepidation over how prisoners would fare but the results have been good,” said the Scottish Prison Service.