People caught with drugs for personal use should be kept out of jail and not given criminal records, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.
The party said it wanted to see the approach used in Portugal introduced to Scotland which would see people handed civil penalties or put on treatment and education programmes instead.
The proposal was outlined in the Lib Dem’s general election manifesto which was published yesterday.
The 117 page document unveiled by party leader Willie Rennie in South Queensferry states that legislation should be passed to end the “imprisonment for possession of drugs for personal use, diverting resources towards tackling organised drug crime instead.
“We will continue to apply severe penalties to those who manufacture, import, or deal in illegal drugs and clamp down on those who produce and sell unregulated chemical highs.”
Liberal Democrat Business Minister Jo Swinson claimed people with drug addictions had a health problem, not a criminal justice problem.
“We need to consider whether or not a criminal record is something that helps people get over an addiction and get on with their lives,” she said.
“Criminalising people when they need medical help is not necessarily the best way forward.”
The manifesto stated that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for medicinal use,
Other pledges include extending free childcare to all two-year-olds by 2020, more devolution of power to Holyrood and local communities, a pathway to fight climate change with five green laws and a £800million boost for the NHS, prioritising mental health service improvements.
The Lib Dems want to restrict televised junk food marketing adverts until after 9pm to tackle childhood obesity, shift common agricultural payments from landowners to farmers and improve Scotland’s representation in EU fishing talks.
The party has vowed to continue and extend the fuel discount scheme to other rural areas, forbid any public body from collecting and storing personal information without statutory authority and improve scrutiny of the police service.
Mr Rennie said the document was a “serious, steady and costed approach” to government which reflected the careful course the party had steered over the last five years to save Britain from economic ruin.
He claimed a centralist approach to politics was needed because the SNP and Labour wanted to lurch to the left and borrow between £140billion-£180billion to fund spending commitments while the Conservatives would swing to the right and cut funding back to 1960s levels which would “jeopardise public services”.
Mr Rennie said: “Our plan is for a stronger economy, a fairer society and opportunity for everyone.
“We want to create a decade of opportunity, we believe in it, we are sticking to it and, in government, we will deliver on it.
“Over the course of this campaign, we have seen our opponents producing irresponsible plans for increased debt, vast spending commitments on the hoof, and cynical tactics that put the very future of our country at risk.
“But the Scottish Liberal Democrats are sticking to our guns and passing the Kipling test – to ‘keep your head when all about you are losing theirs’.
The Lib Dems have claimed they have “steered a careful course” over the last five years as part of the UK Government to pull back an economy on the brink of collapse.
The party revealed it was “campaigning longest and hardest” to retain the 11 seats it won in the 2010 general election, most of which are in the north.
Mr Rennie said: “Other people would pretend that we are not in the race anywhere but in the 11 seats we are absolutely – it is close between us and the SNP.”
He claimed the party’s Christine Jardine had a “great chance” of retaining Gordon and would be doing the SNP a “service” by preventing former First Minister Alex Salmond from returning to Westminster.
Mr Rennie said he did not support the idea of the SNP holding any sort of power at Westminster, whether in coalition or on a confidence and supply issue by issue basis.
“It would be unreasonable to put them in charge of an institution that they are against,”! he added.
“You could just imagine Alex Salmond, deputy prime minister, and as soon as you have turned your back he’s got his screwdriver out trying to take the country apart.”