Nationalist drug expert: SNP is playing politics as addicts die
‘Institutional narcissism in corridors of power’ to blame for drug deaths crisis
A LEADING campaigner has vowed never to work with the Scottish Government again over its mishandling of the drug deaths crisis.
Annemarie Ward accused the Nationalist administration of using the situation to fuel the case for Scottish independence by stirring up rows with Westminster over proposed changes to drug laws.
She left a meeting this week in disgust at the ‘institutional narcissism’ of government officials and ministers, and said she felt ‘gaslit and abused’ by civil servants.
The row comes after figures last week showed the number of drug-related deaths had fallen by less than 1 per cent in the past year, meaning there are still more than 1,300 fatalities a year or an average of around four per day.
Last night Scottish Tory drugs
‘Gaslit and abused by these civil servants’
spokesman Sue Webber said: ‘It’s really disheartening to hear that Annemarie Ward’s meeting with the Scottish Government was so unproductive. She and FAVOR UK [the human rights advocacy service of which Miss Ward is chief executive] are dedicated to tackling Scotland’s drug-death epidemic, which has spiralled out of control on Nicola Sturgeon’s watch.
‘Annemarie and her charity come at this problem with the wisdom of lived experience of addiction.
‘SNP ministers should be listening to her, and working with her – as the Scottish Conservatives have in drawing up our landmark Right to Recovery Bill – rather than ignoring her.’
Miss Ward said she left an online meeting on Tuesday with Scottish Government civil servants and human rights expert Professor Alan Miller after FAVOR UK was asked to be involved voluntarily with a project it had submitted a business case for previously.
She fears the project is now out of her control and will become ‘just another failing committee’.
Miss Ward tweeted: ‘I will never engage with any of these people [at the Scottish Government] ever again, I feel gaslit and abused by these civil servants.
‘The social distance between what’s happening on the ground in real life and in the politically and linguistically correct bureaucratic, naive middle class corridors of power couldn’t be further apart.’
Yesterday Miss Ward told the Mail: ‘I am an SNP member and support independence but I believe they are playing politics – I am sick of the institutional narcissism.’
SNP ministers are lobbying the UK Government for legal changes to allow the setting up of ‘shooting galleries’ – known as safer consumption rooms – where addicts can inject heroin under medical supervision, but Miss Ward said the scheme would not work as it was not a form of treatment.
Instead, she said, the issue was being used to stoke the debate over independence.
Miss Ward said: ‘There seems to be a massive misunderstanding in Scotland that if we only changed the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act [to allow safer consumption rooms] then we would be able to stop the drug deaths. This isn’t true; this message is being used by politicians and their communication experts and spin doctors to fuel a proxy debate on independence.’
She added: ‘Scotland has all the powers it needs to treat people for addiction.’
Last night a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are putting the voices of lived experience at the heart of the national mission to reduce drug-related deaths and we’ll continue to listen to those views as we strive to improve and save lives – taking action and delivering new investment to get more people into the treatment which works for them.’