The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Ministers accused of ‘shabby politics’ over drug summits clash
Ministers have been accused of “thoroughly shabby politics” after two drugs summits were scheduled a day apart.
Scottish ministers have clashed with their Westminster counterparts over a lack of consultation before it was announced a UK Drugs Summit would be held at the SEC in Glasgow on February 27.
A second conference is also being hosted at the same venue on February 26 by the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council. It had originally been scheduled for March 12.
Critics have now accused the two administrations of cynicism at a time when drugs deaths are at an all-time high. There were 1,187 drugs-related deaths in Scotland in 2018, an increase of 27% on the previous year.
Paul Sweeney, former Labour MP for Glasgow North East, campaigned to reduce the number of fatalities.
He said: “The governments in Scotland and Westminster are fiddling while Rome burns. The key thing for me is – having experienced the back and forth on drugs issues at Westminster – what has been really frustrating is seeing the number of drug deaths increase but a failure to take responsibility from various parties in government. That’s at Scottish and UK level.
“We’ve seen a failure of the Tories to accept that the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act is completely not fit for purpose any more. But also there’s been a total failure to recognise that the Scottish Government has massively cut addiction services in the last 10 years. It’s been cuts to addiction services, a collapse in rehabilitation facilities.”
Last week, Scotland’s minister for public health Joe Fitzpatrick criticised Westminster for excluding people with real-life experience of drug abuse from its summit.
Mr Fitzpatrick said: “What Scotland faces in terms of drug deaths is nothing short of a public health emergency.
“The UK event, while welcome, does not have the voices of people with lived experience in Scotland at its heart.
“We’ve pressed the UK Government to extend their event to accommodate this, but this has not yet been forthcoming.
“At the Scottish event we will discuss recommendations of recent reports.”