‘Addicts should not have children’

A member of the Scottish parliament wants drug misusers to be barred from having children.

In a discussion paper, Labour backbencher Duncan McNeil said drug services had not focused enough on the rights of the children of drug misusers.

He argued that misusers, in return for state support such as free medicines and health advice, should have to enter a formal social contract under which they would commit to not starting a family until they stopped taking drugs.

 McNeil (pictured) told Community Care: “There has been a great deal done for the rights of addicts and the programmes that are in place are commendable. We need to move on from that to give children of those addicts some rights.

“I am very concerned that we need to get a focus on children and wider families who never chose to take drugs.”

He said “every family” in his Greenock and Inverclyde constituency knew of the effects of drug addiction.

However, his proposals were condemned by the Scottish Drugs Forum.