Drugs minister pledges vital rehab help for desperate addict after Daily Record highlights his plight
SCOTLAND’S drugs minister has personally intervened to speed up rehab for a desperate addict after the Record told of his plight.
Angela Constance contacted longterm methadone patient Francis McGowan, 52, after we revealed how he has waited more than 20 years for specialist help.
His life has been an endless loop of addiction, crime and prison after he was abused by Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton when he was nine.
Despite a major cash injection by the Scottish Government, drug services in many areas have failed to show urgency in addressing the national drug deaths crisis.
Francis’s case worker told him there is “no cash for rehab” but £5million of £13.5million given to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) was designated for residential rehabilitation. North Lanarkshire received £856,300.
Francis told the Record he was invited by Constance to give details of his torrid struggle.
He said: “It’s odd because normally I’d be lucky to get a 10-minute chat with a drug worker every few months but after the Record story, everybody seems to want to help me.
“I’ve been offered rehab by a private company and Angela Constance personally asked me for more details, so I gave her a summary of my life story. To be honest, I feel grateful that she took the time to get in touch but I guess it wouldn’t have happened if the Record didn’t publish my story.
“It’s all happening so fast but I’m ready to get myself into rehab tomorrow if a place is found.”
Francis said he had also been contacted by other methadone patients in North Lanarkshire, who had received “monthly calls” out of the blue from drug workers.
He said: “We’ve been having a laugh about that because we never had any monthly calls before, now they’re all suddenly keyed up. If a rocket has been set under ADP staff then that’s got to be good because there’s people dying every day.”
Annemarie Ward, of the FAVOR charity, said: “We have to ask why Francis is not in rehab already, given he surely meets all the criteria and cash is meant to be available.
“He should be given a place immediately if Scotland is serious about turning our record deaths around.”
Ward said there is evidence to prove how severe childhood trauma is linked to addiction and “self soothing destructively”.
She added: “Of course not everyone who is abused as a child goes on to become addicted. The research tells us that the majority of addicted people have endured severe and enduring trauma as children.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced last December an extra £250million for drug programmes, over five years. There will be £100million for rehab.
Drugs activist Peter Krykant said: “Although Scottish Government has seemingly allocated a large sum of money to support and expand access, it’s clearly not filtering down to the frontline.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have huge sympathy with people who, like Francis, have struggled with a life of addiction and the Minister for Drugs Policy has offered to meet him.
Scotland had 1339 drug deaths in 2020, the worst rate in Europe and almost four times as bad as the rest of the UK.