We’ll do better and act faster to tackle drug deaths crisis
Constance says she’s ready to do whatever it takes to save lives
SCOTLAND’S new drugs minister has promised a rapid “step change” backed with “significant” extra funding.
Angela Constance admitted the time for talk is over and action must come immediately, with fast results.
She told the Daily Record that she is prepared to be personally judged on results in the same way as her predecessor, Joe FitzPatrick, before he was forced to resign last week.
Constance said: “The First Minister has said we own this crisis and I will own our successes and I will own our failures.
“I don’t do denial and complacency but I am determined that we will have a national mission to address this.
“I know for sure that I have between now and the Scottish Parliament elections in this post. I hear the call for action and I aim to think seriously about what I can do right now.”
Constance has already met families and people with lived experience, and said she intends to put them “front and centre” of her strategy.
FitzPatrick made similar pledges, only to be accused of paying such people lip service.
Previous health ministers tried to blame our escalating drug death crisis on previous administrations.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last week apologised for the scale of the problem, with 1264 deaths at the last count, the worst death rate among EU nations.
Constance said: “I’m coming into this with fresh eyes and ears.
“The First Minister has made a commitment to make a statement in January and we will be laying down a step change.
“We will build on the good platforms that are already there but we know that we have to do things better, we have to do things differently and we have to do them faster.
“This is the seventh portfolio I’ve had as a government minister and I’m under no illusions that this is the toughest yet.
“I’m up for it and I’m absolutely determined to make a difference.”
Former social worker Constance, 50, has worked in three prisons, as well as the State Hospital at Carstairs, bringing her into contact with many people with drug addiction.
When asked if new funding would be significant, she replied: “Yes. Financial resource is key and, as a minister that will be working from dawn to dusk, I will be fighting for more resource.
“There will be more money. There is a new, dedicated ministerial portfolio and there needs to be a budget that goes along with that.”
The thorny issue of residential rehab has caused turbulence in recent years.
Despite many Scots emerging after treatment with drug-free lives, others have suffered relapse and some have gone through several treatment programmes with no long-term success, resulting in Government funding being all but eliminated.
Constance seems strongly minded
This is my toughest government portfolio yet ANGELA CONSTANCE ON THE TASK AHEAD
to return to rehab for patients most likely to benefit from it. She said: “I have seen for myself over the years the power of rehab. “I want to get up to speed with current thinking and practice about rehab – but it does work.”
She accepts that getting people into treatment and keeping them there until they can feel benefits is the primary challenge we face.
Constance said: “We accept that, in their recovery, people will take steps forward and backwards but we have to keep hold of them.
“We have to ensure that our specialist services have ‘sticky hands’ and we need to wrap our arms round people in good times and bad times to keep them safe.”
Constance will join Sturgeon in a meeting with Peter Krykant, who is running a converted minibus styled as an “Overdose Prevention Centre”.
She refused to say if there were plans for a legal turn, ignoring rumblings from Westminster that warn there is “no legal framework” for any facilities to allow drug taking in any form.
She said: “We’ll want to approach things with an open mind. We want to have a discussion with him, in the interests of good public health.”
Constance noted our campaigning for action on drug deaths.
She said: “The Daily Record has done so much to break down the stereotypes, to bring people to that place where they will see a drug user as a human being and someone that deserves help, as somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter.
“We need to remember many of the same adults who have chaotic lives and addiction are the same kids when were let down in care or who have suffered trauma that would make your heart bleed or your hair stand on end.”
Constance said she would give full consideration to a public health campaign that addresses the ever-growing menace of street drugs, which are present in two-thirds of our drug deaths.
The Record has lamented how fake Valium – usually etizolam imported from China – is circulated by the million by Scots gangsters yet little is done in communities to warn of the massive risk to life.
Constance said: “I would be open to a public health campaign that might address the issue of street drugs and benzos.
“There has been a rapid increase in use since 2015.
“It is complex treating polydrug use but we need to do more to ensure people get the right treatment at the right time.”