The Green party’s election manifesto pledges to ‘regulate access’ to recreational drugs through pharmacies.

The manifesto, launched today (19 November), pledges to end the ‘war on drugs’ – which it brands a ‘resounding failure’ – and set up a ‘radically new system’ based around harm reduction if the Green party is elected into Government on 12 December.

It pledges to: ‘Regulate access for adults to stimulant and psychedelic drugs based on the evidence around harm reduction through pharmacies, after a safety consultation with a qualified pharmacist, at fixed doses and fixed prices.’

The Green party would also make heroin available on prescription following a medical assessment by a doctor and provide ‘safe facilities’ for users who inject drugs, to encourage ‘more problematic’ drug users into treatment.

 

‘A health issue, not a crime’

 

The Green party would also ‘replace the current system of prohibition with an evidence-based, legalised, regulated system of drug control’, the manifesto adds.

It pledges to ‘treat problematic drug use as a health issue, not a crime’, by repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 and pardoning those previously convicted for possession and small-scale drugs supply.

If elected, the party would raise ‘significant revenues’ through taxes and licence fees on drugs, which it would use to fund the time it takes for the NHS to treat the harm caused by drug use, it added.