Now MSP calls for all drugs to be made legal
A SENIOR Nationalist MSP has sparked outrage by calling for all drugs to be decriminalised. Emma Harper was accused of ‘fanciful nonsense’ after she said people caught using drugs such as heroin and cocaine should not face prosecution.
The former nurse, who is deputy convener of Holyrood’s health committee, said Scotland should adopt the same approach as Portugal, which made all drugs legal 17 years ago.
Her proposal was backed by a senior Labour MSP, but the Tories said it would exacerbate the problem.
The Scottish Government has been criticised for backing the introduction of a heroin ‘shooting gallery’ in Glasgow, where addicts could inject themselves with their own drugs – only for the proposal to be blocked by Lord Advocate James Wolffe and rejected by Theresa May.
Miss Harper, MSP for South Scotland, told the Daily Record’s Scottish Politics Podcast: ‘What we need to do is decriminalise the issues around drugs because [with] the people I have engaged with who have taken drugs or excessive alcohol, there are reasons behind what leads to that.
‘I have issues with criminalising people who do find themselves taking drugs that are illegal, whether it is cocaine, whether it is heroin.
‘You know I think there is progress that has been made giving people narcan pens, which are reversal drugs in a pen that can be injected if somebody overdoses at home and a lot of these issues are there to save lives and need to be evidenced and researched.
‘And so I support the idea of a safe consumption facility that was proposed to be established in Glasgow, but Aileen Campbell, when she was minister, wanted to get that message across to Westminster because it is a reserved issue.’
She cited evidence taken in the health committee about different approaches and said: ‘The Portuguese model has been working.’
Liam Kerr, Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said: ‘People whose lives and communities have been ravaged by drugs want government to get tough on the issue. Instead, they have to hear fanciful nonsense which would only exacerbate the problem.
‘This view is indicative of the SNP’s complacency on drugs which has coincided with a record number of drug-related deaths north of the Border.’
Labour MSP Neil Findlay said drugs policy in Scotland is ‘failing miserably’. He said decriminalising drugs ‘is the debate we need’. He added: ‘I couldn’t give a toss about the party politics because this is far too important.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The SNP is firmly of the view that drug and substance misuse is first and foremost a public health issue.’
FIRST the SNP proposed giving addicts free medical-grade heroin in publicly funded shooting galleries. Then came a plan to give street drinkers wine in so-called ‘wet shelters’.
Now a senior party figure on holyrood’s influential health Committee suggests decriminalising all drugs.
emma harper’s idea does nothing more than underscore that on drug abuse and addiction – as well as justice more widely – the SNP is hopelessly out of touch with the majority of ordinary Scots.