Frustrations aired over drugs task force
Lack of meetings is‘appalling’
Police in Stirling say the work of a national task force on drugs deaths has not yet filtered down to area level, despite ongoing local work.
Drugs-related deaths across Forth Valley, including Stirling, increased to 38 between April 1 and September 30 2019 - up from 30 in the same quarter the previous year.
Updating Stirling Council’s public safety committee last week, Stirling area commander Chief Inspector Gill Marshall said the Scottish Government’s Drugs Deaths Task Force had met once - in September - since it was set up last summer, leading panel chair SNP councillor Maureen Bennison to describe the lack of meetings as “appalling”.
The Scottish Government later claimed the task force had met three times, most recently last week.
At the committee, Tory group immense frustration at the apparent lack of activity on that, but just because we are unaware doesn’t mean it’s not going on.”
Labour councillor Chris Kane said: “I have attended the local ADP meetings as community planning and regeneration convener and there’s continuing work going on locally as it has always done. We need to distinguish between national task force and the ongoing work of the ADP which definitely has met and done work.”
Stirling Tories later accused the SNP of being “asleep at the wheel” over the issue.
Councillor Benny added: “The Justice Secretary had time to go to an independence march in Glasgow, but has no time to deal with Scotland’s massive problem with drugs deaths. The Scottish Government must admit it has got this wrong and bring together a proper task force that is more than a fig leaf PR gesture.”
Mid Scotland & Fife MSP, Dean Lockhart, described the rise in drugs deaths across Scotland as a national scandal that needed a cross-party message, accusing the Scottish Government of paying “lip service” to the issue.
A Scottish Government spokesperson told the Observer: “The drug deaths task force has been set up with the aim of informing steps to reduce the harms caused by drugs and advise on further changes in practice, or in the law, which could help save lives.
“It has now met three times – with the last meeting held in Dundee last week. That meeting had a specific focus on the recommendations from the Dundee Drug Commission Report and how they could be implemented both in Dundee and across Scotland. In addition, the taskforce agreed to support a proposal for an innovate pilot of ‘assertive outreach’ in Glasgow.
“This new approach, which will be funded by the Scottish Government, targets the most vulnerable people, providing 24/7 care for those who have been difficult to get into support services which could save lives. If successful, the programme will be rolled out across the country.”
A summit on drugs deaths was also said to be planned for later this year.
Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford said: “Behind each of these incidents is a family torn apart, and it’s vital we do all we can to provide support in order to stop people dying from what they have taken and to eventually support them off of a reliance on harmful substances.”