A member of the Welsh Conservatives group has said:
“It has emerged that the Welsh Labour Government funds a free anonymous service for people to get the quality of substances, including dangerous and illegal drugs, tested.
“Some of the drugs tested in the past month include cocaine, heroin, crack, diazepam and the horse tranquiliser ketamine: http://www.wedinos.org/db/samples.”
They continued:
“The service Wedinos received £102,000 of taxpayers’ money from the Welsh Labour Government in 2013-14. Since 2010, the NHS in Wales has faced the worst budget settlement of any UK nation.”
Commenting, Darren Millar AM, Shadow Minister for Health, said:
“This website suggests that Labour in Wales has given up the fight against drugs.
“At a time when more patients than ever are waiting for NHS treatment and Welsh cancer patients are being denied modern medicines, it is astounding that anybody, including drug dealers, is being given access to a free analytical service to test the quality of their substances.
“Many Welsh taxpayers will be angry that, at a time when the Welsh NHS is still struggling to cope with the legacy of record-breaking cuts imposed by the Welsh Labour Government, Ministers still seem to have the cash to throw resources at novelty programmes like Wedinos.
“This free service is not just testing recreational highs, but illegal and dangerous drugs including heroin, cocaine and crack and gives advice on snorting and injecting substances.
“In providing funding for this project, Ministers are confusing the message that these illegal substances are harmful and potentially promoting their use.
“The Welsh Government should be trying to tackle drug dependency and not allowing drug dealers to benchmark the quality of the substances they pedal to vulnerable people in deprived communities of Wales.
“While the service may have been set up with the best of intentions, it is obviously open to abuse by dangerous criminals peddling harmful substances in order to fund other crime.
“Welsh Labour Ministers should explain how this programme provides any benefit to hardworking taxpayers or shut it down and reinvest the savings in frontline services.”
[Editorial Note] As a politically agnostic organisation we do not normally comment on most of the news articles we cover but in this case we feel a comment is necessary. We do not condone the use of drugs but we all feel that Wedinos offers a valuable service, mapping and informing people of dangerous, and in many times fatal drugs that have been ‘cut’ with toxic substances.
