Plaid Cymru demands drugs decriminalisation

Plaid Cymru has called for wholesale liberalisation of laws on the possession of illegal drugs.

The party set out its position in its Police and Crime Commissioner Manifesto, which also urges the UK Government to devolve “full criminal justice powers” to the Senedd and Welsh Government.

Plaid claimed that a policy of drugs decriminalisation, that respects “individual choices”, would be less likely to lead to a “hostile and violent environment” than “traditional methods of policing drugs”.

Crime

The party also called on the UK Home Office to “cleanse the criminal records of those cautioned or convicted of drugs possession where there are no aggravating factors”.

The party claimed that the police should instead focus “on targeting supply lines and dealers in the organised drug trade rather than individual users, if those people are causing no wider harm”.

Plaid Cymru has a Police and Crime Commissioner in Dyfed Powys in South West and Central Wales, where Dafydd Llywelyn has held the post since 2016.

The UK Government has previously rejected the SNP’s push to decriminalise all drugs for personal use in Scotland. Police Scotland figures show that drug-related deaths there have topped a thousand for the sixth year in a row.