HUMZA Yousaf has said more "progressive" drugs law would be a priority for an SNP Government under independence, moving away from criminalisation to harm reduction.
The Health Secretary said he wanted “the most progressive method” of tackling the drugs deaths crisis to stop addicts being trapped in a cycle of abuse, crime and poverty.
The Health Secretary said Home Secretary Suella Braverman's willingness to go in the other direction, and classify cannabis as a Class A drug with severe prison sentences attached, was “awful, regressive and dangerous”.
Scotland has the highest drugs death rate in Europe, with 1,330 fatalities in 2021.
Speaking at the SNP conference in Aberdeen on a panel about Government delivery, Mr Yousaf was asked for his priority under independence.
After saying the NHS would always be in public hands under independence, he moved on to tackling the drugs deaths crisis, and the 1971 Westminster law covering illegal drugs.
He said: “One of the biggest challenges we have in government is to tackle that National Mission on drugs deaths. We're doing that with one hand tied behind our back.
“The current home secretary Suella Braverman has said that she is open to the idea of classifying cannabis as a Class A drug.
“How awful, how regressive, how dangerous a policy is that?
“And we are having to bring forward progressive action that will make a difference, so that people aren't in that perpetual cycle of substance abuse then ending up in our justice system and ending up in a poverty cycle.
“We are trying to break that, but with one hand tied behind our back, because important elements of the Misuse of Drugs Act are reserved.”
He went on: “So one of the first things I know we will do upon independence is to make sure that we bring forward, with all of the appropriate legislation, the most progressive method of tackling that drugs crisis, so that once and for all we break that cycle of poverty, of substance abuse, of those individuals going in and out the revolving door of services.
“So one of the things I’m in one sense I'm quite excited about is the opportunity that independence will bring to tackle some of those deep-rooted problems that we’re trying to tackle, but tackling with one hand behind our back.”
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