Leanne Wood defends her stance on prescribing heroin on the NHS
Leanne Wood has defended her stance on prescribing heroin on the NHS.
Speaking to ITV’s Tonightprogramme, the leader of Plaid Cymru said it is something that should be explored.
“I looked many years ago when I was Plaid Cymru’s social justice spokesperson at the tragic situation whereby a number of people had been killed by overdoses of heroin.
"When I was looking for solutions to this, I came across the experiment that was being undertaken in Zurich in Switzerland where instead of criminalising and taking people out of society when they develop heroin addictions they treat them with multidisciplinary teams.
"The aim there is to get people back into society and if that means receiving heroin injections for the rest of their lives, then so be it because what they’ve achieved in Zurich is an 80% reduction in property crime and a very high success rate in terms of getting former addicts back into productive jobs.
"I think that’s at least worthy of a discussion here in Wales," she added.
Ms Wood also told ITV Wales Presenter Jonathan Hill that Wales should explore its own future if Scotland becomes independent.
“In all likelihood people in Scotland will have another referendum and they could vote to leave the UK.
“Under those circumstances, the UK no longer exists and what we need to do then in Wales is have a full discussion about our future as a nation”.
Wood also reflected on her atheism.
“I don’t have a faith. I spend time with my friends and I try to go to some of our beautiful landscapes, to the beach or the hills.
“If I’ve got something tricky on my mind and I find that that can help resolve things but, no, I’m not a believer in any religion.
"Although of course I’m more than happy for people to express their religion in whatever way they want to and I believe that as a society we should support people to be able to do that.”
‘Tonight -The Leader Interviews: Leanne Wood’ is on ITV Wales at 8pm