Labour MPs urge Keir Starmer to bring party drugs policies into 21st century

A group of Labour MPs are calling for Keir Starmer and Scottish leader Richard Leonard to back urgent drugs law reforms to save lives.

The Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform (LCDPR), backed by 16 MPs and 4 MSPs, yesterday launched its drugs manifesto, which broadly back the reforms the Daily Record has been demanding.

Many MPs are understood to be frustrated and angry at the Labour leadership’s slowness in getting behind plans to treat drug addiction as a health rather than a crime issue.

The LCDPR calls for the Parliamentary Labour Party to:

•Support an explicitly public health-based approach to drug use, moving away from a punishment-based model.

•Support the introduction of drug consumption rooms, life-saving facilities that prevent overdose deaths.

•Support the expansion of drug checking services, which informs users of what is in the drugs they are taking.

•Prioritise investment in treatment and recovery services that help people overcome addiction.

•Back police schemes that divert people found in personal possession of drugs out of the criminal justice system, crucially avoiding a criminal record.

The Daily Record's call to decriminalise drug use was supported by the SNP at at its party conference.

Scottish Labour's health spokesperson Monica Lennon has been an outspoken supporter of Drug Consumption Rooms and other progressive strategies - but has failed to win the formal support of her party.