A group of MPs have called on Labour leaders Keir Starmer and Richard Leonard to back urgent drugs law reforms to save lives.
Despite the vast majority of Scottish MPs supporting the Record’s calls to decriminalise aspects of drug use, as other European nations have done, Scottish Labour – under Leonard’s leadership – has failed to formally adopt the stance.
Labour leader Starmer has also failed to issue a challenge to the Tory Government’s “War on Drugs”, which has led to the UK having the worst drug death rate in Europe. In Scotland, the situation is twice as bad as the rest of the UK.
Organisers of the Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform – backed by 16 MPs and four MSPs – have demanded official party backing for new strategies to tackle the crisis.
Their report calls for the UK to support an explicitly public health-based approach to drug use, moving away from a punishment-based model.
And they advocate the introduction of drug consumption rooms, removing the need for activists such as Peter Krykant to act illegally in opening an unofficial service.
The group also backs schemes that divert people found in personal possession of drugs out
of the criminal justice system, avoiding a criminal record that will further blight their life.
Joint co-oordinator Anthony Lehane said: “We call on Starmer and Leonard to work constructively with our campaign and consider our recommendations. The appetite is there at grassroots, as displayed at Labour Conference.”
Lehane insisted drug consumption rooms are proven to work.
He said: “Wander down back alleys in Glasgow city centre and you will likely stumble across used syringes, blackened foil or someone injecting drugs.
“Before sneering, people should spare a thought for people forced to inject dangerously in squalid conditions.
“Many of these people are victims of abuse or have suffered severe
hardship in their lives.”
The report, following an 18-month study, accuses Prime Minister Boris Johnson and previous Tory regimes of having “no meaningful policy or programme”.
