Let us make drugs laws so we can save lives

The wliss arques 'compassionate' reforms are needed here

-  MARK MCGIVERN

THE SNP has demanded devolution of drugs policy after a Westminster committee highlighted a "lack of action" to save lives.

Glasgow MP Alison Thewliss said a home affairs select committee recommendation to scrap the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 has been ignored by the Government.

She claimed it is holding up reforms that should have been made years ago.

Thewliss, who speaks for the SNP on home affairs at Westminster, insisted the blockages to reform by the Tories are making it harder for people to escape addiction.

She said: "It is disappointing that the UK Government has not accepted the urgent need to reform our out-of-date and harmful drugs laws.

"This committee took a great deal of expert evidence for this report, yet so much of this is rejected for ideological reasons.

"The UK Government's war on drugs has been an unmitigated failure and it only serves to criminalise vulnerable people and leave them without the support they deserve.