SCOTLAND’S DRUG DEATHS TASKFARCE
LIFE-SAVING CRISIS GROUP ‘HAS FAILED’
BY MARK McGIVERN Chief Reporter
SCOTLAND’S Drug Deaths Task Force has been branded a failure after failing to turn the tide of deaths.
Critics claim the expert group, formed 12 months ago, has had little impact as the death toll has risen this year.
The task force was announced after a campaign for more action on drugs. Health minister Joe FitzPatrick ruled out a public inquiry as he wanted results to be “considerably faster” than a probe would allow.
However, the task force failed to meet for four months earlier this year and recent criticism has focused on a refusal to provide proper funding for rehab beds to help addicts get off drugs.
Yesterday’s report centred on the announcement of £4million of funding, which critics claim had been taken off previous budgets for alcohol and drug partnerships (ADPs).
Of that figure, £1million will go to 10 research projects and £3million is allocated to ADPs.
Annemarie Ward, of the Faces and Voices of Recovery group, said: “We’ve had to beg our governments for help but there has been hardly any action.
“During the pandemic, we have seen how things can be mobilised and changed but it’s obvious that addicts’ lives don’t matter to governments. It’s like a phoney emergency response.
“This report has a huge list of meetings and committees set up but little action. The £4million is only money that has been removed from ADPs previously. We aren’t even getting drug death statistics this year and we know there’s something very wrong when a state can’t even count and declare the numbers of its dead.
“We have practically zero rehab to help get people off drugs – that is insane. We are continuing to concentrate on managing people’s addictions and keep them on drugs rather than trying to help them get well.” Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Monica Lennon said the success of the task force can only be measured on drug deaths. She said: “On the basis that it had one narrow and very important objective, and drug deaths appear to be still rising, it can’t be considered a success. Prior to the Covid crisis, it appeared we may be losing the battle. We now know momentum turned the wrong way.
“I’d be in favour of a public inquiry, even now, as the need is now more pressing than ever and the problem is most certainly not going away.” Lennon added it is shameful that a country with the worst reported drug death rate in the world has no official statistics on mortalities owing to a wrangle over funding for toxicology services.
Official drug death figures were due to be released last week. Last year’s figures brought a shock reaction as Scotland’s fatalities exceeded those of the US, where super-strong opiate fentanyl has ripped through communities.
FitzPatrick yesterday gave details of a new website to inform stakeholders, service providers, people who use drugs and their families. A new strategy to tackle stigma is also geared to encouraging more people to seek treatment.
FitzPatrick said: “This is not a problem with a quick solution. The task force has spent many hours gathering evidence about the true extent of this emergency and developing and implementing strategies to tackle it. This funding will enable it to act using what it has learned from individuals’ lived experiences.
“I have been told repeatedly that stigma is a real barrier to people accessing treatment. It can come from many sources but most damaging is selfstigma where people believe they are not worthy of support.”
Task force chair, Professor Catriona Matheson, said: “We’ve been urgently reviewing evidence of what can best address Scotland’s unique challenge and putting that evidence in action.
“The task force recognises we all need to get away from a search for a mythical, single, magic bullet and towards a programme of implemented strategies that not only works but engenders a new level of trust, sharing and collaboration in Scotland’s key agencies.
“We believe in positive, sustainable change.”