Latest in woeful list of SNP policy failures

THE latest change is just one of a number of controversial approaches to drugs policy that have emerged while Scotland has been governed by the SNP.

Since 201 , first-time offenders caught with small quantities of cannabis can be let off with a recorded police warning (RPW), which stays on their record for two years.

Use of RPWs has shot up since their introduction. The following year prosecutions fell by more than a quarter. It has prompted concern that there is an over-reliance on RPWs to control the class B substance.

There was a 37 per cent decline in prosecutions between 2014 and 2019. This is despite a report by the UK Government finding that 8.4 per cent of adults admitted to using cannabis.

The Scottish Government and Nationalist MPs have long called for the UK Government

to use its reserved powers to change UK law to allow consumption rooms to be set up in Scotland.

These rooms, which have been referred to as heroin ‘shooting galleries’, allow users to inject without the prospect of being arrested. In the meantime, Scotland continues to have the worst record of drug deaths in Europe.

Last year, Nationalist MSP Joe FitzPatrick ‘agreed’ to resign as health minister just days after Scotland recorded its highest ever number of drug deaths.

A record 1,2 4 drug deaths were registered in 2019, prompting calls for him to resign or face a vote of no confidence.

Scotland’s record grew even worse when it logged 1,339 drug-related deaths in 2020 – by far the highest rate in Europe – with the Scottish Government pledging to make it a ‘national mission’ to reduce the number of fatalities.