Deluded SNP

SCOTLAND’S stratospheric drug deaths toll is nothing less than a public health emergency.

Yet it has been stoked for years by the SNP’s brand of soft-touch justice – with drug users let off with a slap on the wrist.

Warnings and fines are issued in cases where small amounts of cannabis are involved. But it is a potentially harmful drug – and one that can act as a gateway to more lethal substances.

A signal has been sent out that the consequences of being found in possession of it won’t be severe. In effect, it’s a kind of creeping backdoor decriminalisation – but just look at the results.

Shamefully, Scotland tops an EU league table of drug deaths, and the fatality rate is nearly four times higher than the UK as a whole. Yet the SNP’s Angus MacNeil, in response to these grim findings, helped to spread misinformation about the statistics.

Independence supporters circulated falsehoods online, trying to cast doubt on the accuracy of the data.

And blundering Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick gave a car- crash TV interview, during which he admitted he was clueless about the number of drug rehab beds. Yet we’re told that he retains the confidence of the First Minister.

It’s another illustration of the SNP’s failure to get to grips with a problem that has spiralled out of control under its watch.

How many more lives will be lost before this inept government acknowledges the scale of the crisis – and finally starts to address it?