DELEGATES at the SNP conference in October could back calls to massively reform Scotland’s drug laws.

A motion, penned by National Council member Josh Mennie, and backed by MP Ronnie Cowan and the SNP’s trade union group, asks members to back calls for a “comprehensive review” of current drug policy.

It comes as grim statistics released on Wednesday showed the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland had jumped up 23 per cent to 867, two-and-a-half times the rate in the rest of the UK, and, according to some analysis, the highest in Europe.

The National was leaked a copy of the SNP conference programme earlier this week.

If debated and then backed at the conference, it would also mean the party supports “approaching substance misuse as a public health issue rather than a criminal matter” and would work to “lift the stigma associated with addiction; remove barriers between police and communities and allow policy to reflect the values of our progressive society.”

Mennie told The National he had been trying to bring a motion about drugs reform to the party for some time. 

“We need to reform our drug policy because decades of the so called war on drugs has failed,” he said. 
“All the government has achieved from the war on drugs is criminalising a generation of people who choose to use cannabis and perhaps other substances.  We need a drug policy that closer reflects our progressive values and allows choice.”  

He added that there was a trend “across the Western world where many countries are moving to a common sense approach where they are progressing to reform their drug reform policies.“

David Liddell, CEO at Scottish Drugs Forum welcomed the debate: “As has been illustrated over the last few days with the release of statistics showing record levels of overdose deaths, there is indeed a need to review our approach in terms of national policy and in terms of practice.

“The move from justice to health is significant in terms of having an approach that views people with a drug problem as people who need help rather than punishment. It may seem odd that this needs to be stated but it needs stated again and again such is the stigma faced by people with a drug problem.

“A new reviewed drug policy is an opportunity to address the value base that allowed government and wider society to view people with a drug problem as criminals who had made some lifestyle choice rather than as people who may need help in terms of their physical and mental health and in building lives based in having a home, something positive to do and a source of income.

“There is still a need to state that our policy and practice should be firmly rooted in the evidence of what works and avoid repeating errors made in the past.”

Drugs reform campaigner, Stephen Malloy, said the conference should go further and agree that not all drug use is problematic drug use but “problematic drug use requires a health and social care response for the benefit of the individual, the family, the community and our country.”

He added that the current approach “disproportionately affects and serves to further marginalise vulnerable groups, and typically those living in poverty”.

While the Misuse of Drugs Act is reserved to Westminster, policing and prosecutions are in the hands of Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate.

Scottish Tory shadow health secretary Miles Briggs urged caution: “The SNP conference is quite right to debate this critical matter.

“There’s no question Scotland’s drugs problem – which is the worst in Europe – is already a public health matter, and should be dealt with as such.

“However, the justice system has a pivotal role to play, and we want to see tougher punishments for the dealers and suppliers routinely ruining – and ending – lives in Scotland.

“Letting them off the hook, as some appear to want, would only make this problem worse.”