AN MSP has described the number of lives lost due to drugs in Inverclyde last year as ‘appalling and heartbreaking’.

Greenock-born politician Jamie Greene has spoken out after new Police Scotland statistics revealed that a total of 66 people in Inverclyde and Renfrewshire are suspected to have died as a result of drugs in 2023.

This includes 21 in the final quarter of the year.

The Conservative MSP has urged First Minister Humza Yousaf and his SNP ministers to support the Right to Recovery Bill, which is backed by frontline experts and would guarantee in a law a right to treatment for all those who need it.

He said: “My thoughts are with everyone in Inverclyde who is grieving the loss of a loved one from drugs.

“It is shocking that 66 are suspected to have lost their lives in this way in Inverclyde and Renfrewshire last year.

“That only highlights that SNP ministers have taken their eye off the ball once again on tackling Scotland’s drug deaths crisis, which is the worst in Europe, with devastating consequences.”