THE city’s Green Party leader has voiced his support for the decriminalisation of drug use, in part to “curb the number of inmates in overcrowded prisons”.

City councillor and parliamentary candidate Louis Stephen said Britain’s drug laws are “utterly failing” and must be overhauled, in light of a new government report which encouraged decriminalisation.

Published last week, the Health and Social Care Committee’s report called for a ‘health focused’ and ‘harm reduction’ approach, which it believes would benefit users and reduce wider community harm and costs.

The committee encouraged drug possession for personal use be reduced to a civil matter, with the UK having some of the highest drug death rates in Europe to the scale of a "public health emergency".

Councillor Stephen, whose views mirror those long held by his party, went on to say “users are not criminals, they are victims”.

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“Every death caused by drugs is a tragedy – these are potentially our sons and daughters dying needlessly due to our failing system.

“Taking drugs can lead to a downward spiral of mental health breakdown, unemployment and homelessness.

“We need to treat this as a health epidemic not criminalise people foolish enough to get involved in this stuff.”

Cllr Stephen, who represents Battenhall on the city council, said official figures show drug-related offences account for 15 per cent of prisoners, “while many offenders can be drawn into using more serious substances while behind bars”.

“Many burglaries are committed by people feeding a drug-habit. Clearly, looking at the evidence, locking up drug addicts does not work.

“If we are to seriously get the softer ‘gateway’ drugs under control we should legalise and regulate their supply as well as decriminalising people who use them.”

The HSCC report also said, following budget cuts of nearly 30 per cent over the past three years, the government must now direct significant investment into drug treatment services “as a matter of urgency”.

“This investment should be accompanied by a centrally co-ordinated clinical audit to ensure that guidelines are being followed in the best interests of vulnerable patients.”

Ed Davies, director of policy at the Centre for Social Justice, said, however, moves to decriminalise drugs would be a “dangerously regressive step and hit the poorest hardest”.

He did though agree with the report’s views on learning from Portugal in terms of treatment and support.

Mr Davies added the addiction treatment sector “desperately needs a renewed vision as well as finance”.