If you think Stockport Council should be having a proper debate about how best to deal with the problem of legal highs, please support our campaign and sign our petition.

Stockport Lib Dems went into the Full Council meeting on 2nd July looking forward to a proper debate on how best to tackle the problem of legal highs. All parties agree is a real issue in the borough, ruining lives and needing quick action.

But the Lib Dems were frustrated when, on this important issue, Labour and the Conservatives ganged up together to block debate after less than 20 minutes, using a procedural motion to stop anyone other than the first two speakers (one Tory, one Labour) having their say.

“On an issue that is affecting the lives of people across Stockport, it’s shameful that Labour and the Tories worked together to cut off all debate.” Cllr Iain Roberts said. “The Lib Dems have been working hard in Stockport to tackle the problem of legal highs. The debate at Full Council was about how we best do that, but maybe the Labour and Conservative groups felt it was more important to get to the pub before last orders.”

The Labour/Conservative motion at Stockport’s Full Council rightly identified the problem of legal highs, but instead of proposing a solution that might work it just wrote Home Secretary Theresa May a blank cheque, promising support for whatever the government ended up doing. A bill to tackle legal highs is currently going through parliament, but it is in its early stages and has drawn huge criticism from medical professionals and experts who say it simply won’t work in its current form.

The Lib Dems believe that we can do better by listening to the experts and developing a strategy based on the evidence of what works, but the other parties didn’t even want to hear it.

Sign our petition here.

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