Iain Dale challenges Sian Berry on Green proposal to legalise cocaine

10 November 2019, 15:43

The Green Party is calling for specialist pharmacies to provide powder cocaine in fixed dosages at fixed prices - but Iain challenged the party's Co-Leader on this policy.

Iain Dale brought up Section DR407 of the Green Party manifesto.

It's a proposal that would "make powder cocaine available in fixed dosages at fixed prices to people who wish to use the drug for recreational purposes for personal use only through the specialist pharmacy model."

It also calls for specialist pharmacies to provide low-strength cocaine drinks at fixed prices and to provide medical support for addicts.

Iain said: " I mean, I read that as free cocaine for everybody."

Berry said that the "comprehensive new drugs policy" needs to "pull all kinds of drugs out of the hands of criminals".

She added: "We need to be making sure that anyone who takes drugs is given the best advice, is given the purest drugs and is able to do that in a regulated market."

Berry continued: " It's very, very clear that we do need to fundamentally rethink.

That, again, is something that's more or less a matter of consensus but a lot of people just talk about decriminalising cannabis, I think we need to look at it in a much, much deeper way, in a way that really is from from the bottom up."

Iain said: "So, essentially, it's free cocaine for anyone who wants it?"

She said: "It wouldn't be free, it would be a regulated market."

She then said: "Every drug needs to be looked at from the point of view of the harm it causes and dealt with proportionately and cocaine does cause harm. It is an addictive drug.

"If you're going to be getting it from anybody you need to be getting from somebody who's going to be giving you good advice and limiting the dose.

"We limit the dose of paracetamol that people can buy at the moment, but that's again a harm reduction effect. It's the same thing.

Take a lot of paracetamol, it's very dangerous."