Time for action
ENCOURAGING SIGNS OF ACTION
THE Daily Record’s front page in July 2016 told of the menace of street Valium – the “blue plague” – that claimed nine lives in a fortnight in Saltcoats alone.
The total drug death rate for 2015 was 706 – with 191 down to the “benzos” that ravaged our streets.
Fast-forward to 2018’s figures and the deaths stand at 1187 for the year, the worst in the world. Benzo deaths are at 792 – more than 400 per cent up.
The Scottish Government’s Drug Deaths Task Force has been slow to advise on radical meaures that might turn the tide.
Ministers should draw inspiration from the brave personal crusade of Councillor Louise McPhater, whose appeals resulted in the Ayrshire summit being, poignantly, hosted in Saltcoats.
Louise stresses it’s time for action – in local communities and at a national level.
It’s time the Scottish Government told us all about the action Scotland desperately needs.
by MARK McGIVERN Chief Reporter
A COUNCILLOR’S personal crusade to cut drug deaths led to a summit with 100 key voices yesterday. Louise McPhater, who lost her sister Angela to a street Valium overdose, persuaded North Ayrshire Council last September to declare a drug deaths emergency. Her passionate call also led to the summit at Saltcoats Town Hall, which laid down details of measures already in place and heard of more to come. When the Record revealed in July 2016 how street “blues”, mainly fake Valium, had gripped many communities in Ayrshire, our first story told how nine people from Saltcoats had died in just two weeks. Death clusters soon emerged in other drugs blackspots across the country. More than three years on and with the drug death toll still rising every year, McPhater said: “The most important thing I want to hear about is hope. “I would like people who are fighting addictions to know that they can be accepted by society and find a positive place in it, that they will get support to overcome their problems. “We need to accept that we are all pulling together in the same direction and treating this like a real emergency. This gathering shows that we’re finally making a lot of progress in that regard.”
McPhater said she was encouraged by the announcement that many more council workers would be trained and equipped to use naloxone, which can help prevent overdose deaths.
And she believes that access to services has markedly opened up since drug deaths were officially designated as a top priority emergency.
She said: “The hall today was packed out. Our task force has got a lot of energy and I’m hoping we will soon see some good results both locally and at the national level with the Scottish Government’s own task force.”
More than 100 key partners, stakeholders and members of the community joined North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, charities and community groups at the summit.
It was also attended by Catriona Matheson, chairwoman of the Scottish Drug Death Task Force, which was set up after pressure by the Record to step up the response to the crisis.
Angela died in 2011 after overdosing on street drugs and painkillers, addictions that saw her go from being a sporty teen to a heroin addict in a few years.