Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Work needed on drugs
Council leader calls for more action over narcotics crisis
COU NCI L leade r Joh n Alexander has issued a frank response to shocking pictures of a man collapsed in the street with a needle in his hand – and insisted more must be done to tackle drugs. The image of the man lying on Bank Street, just off Reform Street in Dundee city centre, holding a needle was taken by a member of the public near refuse bins on Tuesday afternoon. Mr Alexander believes ssociety has “failed” as he hhighlighted the vice of ddrugs across not only the ciity but the whole of the UK. It was revealed last week thhat Dundee had recorded its highest number of drugs deaths on record, with 66 peole dying as a result of narcotics. Mr Alexander said: “Everyone is aware of the sseverity of the issue that we face, not only in Dundee but across the whole of Scotland and the UK.
“That’s exactly why we need to see changes to the way in which drug-related services work to tackle this issue, while making sure there’s a huge focus on early intervention.
“We need to continue to concentrate on preventing people ever getting to this stage.
“Every time a horrific image such as this is printed, all I see is someone’s son, uncle or father. They are human beings and we should be treating them as such.”
Mr Alexander added: “This is a failure of everyone – as a society we have failed.
“That doesn’t, of course, absolve individuals of the poor choices they have made but we need to see this as a health and wellbeing issue and work to reduce the harm caused to individuals, families, communities and society generally.”