GENERAL election candidates have weighed in on how to drive down Inverclyde’s shocking drug death statistics during a hustings in Greenock.

SNP candidate Ronnie Cowan, Scottish Labour candidate Martin McCluskey, Scottish Conservative and Unionist candidate Ted Runciman, Scottish Liberal Democrats candidate Ross Stalker and independent John Burleigh took part in the event at Lyle Kirk.

The five Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West candidates outlined the steps they believe should be taken to address a crisis which saw 29 people lose their lives due to drug-related deaths in Inverclyde in 2022.

Labour candidate Martin McCluskey told those in attendance that issues such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse and suicide were ‘diseases of despair’.

He said: “This is a stain on our community and it’s a stain on our conscience.

“Not just deaths from drug abuse, but deaths from alcohol abuse and the deaths from suicide, and it’s all linked together.  

“We need properly funded services, we need alcohol and drug partnerships to be properly funded.

“We need mental health support – the waiting times for mental health support is chronic at the moment in terms of NHS support for mental health and severe mental health.

“It takes a very long time to get an assessment and it takes a very long time to be treated.

“That needs to be fixed or else we’ll end up with more problems down the line.

“There’s a lot I would support in terms of the trial that’s going on in Glasgow at the moment around safe consumption rooms, however, we do need to ask ourselves some serious questions about why when we have the same drug laws as England, Scotland and specifically Inverclyde is performing so poorly.

“I think from my point of view that’s about the jobs and opportunity available locally.

“We are still dealing with the consequences of industrial scarring which goes back to a time before I was born.”

SNP candidate Ronnie Cowan, who has been the area’s Westminster representative for the last nine years, said the country could not arrest its way out of the issue.

He added: “We tried prohibition, it didn’t work.

“In prohibition what happens is the criminal fraternity take over.

“It happened with alcohol back in the 1920s and 30s in Chicago, the gangsters take over.

“They produce the drugs which defines the quality and how powerful it’s going to be.

Continued: “That’s what we’ve got with drugs now, the gangsters and the criminals control the quality, the distribution, the cost of it and the marketplace.

“They’ll sell to children, they’ll sell to people with addiction problems, they’ll sell to anyone who’ll buy from them.

“You don’t get that [with alcohol], alcohol has it’s own problems but when you go to a pub and you buy a pint, a gin or a whisky – whatever your tipple is – you know it’s not going to kill you.

“You do not have that in the drug situation we’ve got right now.

“Please if you’re going to talk about drugs stop talking about it as the criminality behind it and start looking at people who have been damaged by it and talk about it from a health service prevention and cure point of view.”

Independent candidate John Burleigh said he had personally been affected by drugs-related issues.

He said: “They say that the crisis in Greenock, a lot of it is to do with shoplifting, and who’s doing the shoplifting?

“Those who are drug dependent, they say that most of them it’s through drug dependency.

“I don’t know if methadone helps, I don’t know if these safe rooms where they can have a jag each in the middle of the room is the answer either.

“But it would be nice to sit down and talk to them.

He continued: “I’d like to think that we do address this issue by catching those who are supplying the drugs and there are many and especially these new chemical drugs, the pharmaceutical ones.

“It’s crazy how we’ve got a pharmacy there and as soon as you get a prescription, they’re outside selling them. It’s crazy.

“The whole system needs to be tightened up.”

Mr Burleigh’s comments drew a strong response from Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate Ross Stalker, who highlighted his own experiences with controlled substances.

He said: “I do have to wonder what is meant by the system needing tightened up.

“As someone who is prescribed a controlled drug for legitimate reasons I can say the system is pretty tight already.

“I don’t think it should be more difficult for me to get my ADHD medication.

“The Liberal Democrats want to finally treat addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal issue.

He added: “We would devolve powers to Scotland to have a tailored approach, such as drug courts, as an alternative to imprisoning people for personal possession.”

Conservative candidate Ted Runciman said: “The police no longer follow up on what is a criminal activity.

“They have gone soft on looking at people that are using drugs and I think that we need to look at how we do that and stop the drug taking.”