Don’t give drugs to struggling addicts
Tory’s warning to new taskforce as death toll rises
HEALTH chiefs yesterday warned Scotland was in the grip of a drug death ‘emergency’ as they launched a taskforce to scrutinise plans for heroin ‘shooting galleries’.
There were 934 drug-related fatalities in 2017, the latest year for which figures are available – a rise of 8 per cent on 2016 and more than double the number ten years previously.
Yesterday, Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs blamed the failure on the SNP drugs policy of giving addicts methadone or planning to offer them heroin in the proposed shooting galleries.
He said: ‘Over the last decade the SNP have launched two drug strategies, yet in that time drug deaths in Scotland have doubled.
‘Spending millions on methadone and opening facilities to help heroin addicts take the drugs which have ruined their lives won’t help the current situation.
‘Instead we need to focus resources on helping drug addicts recover.’
Officials said the new drug death taskforce led by Professor Catriona Matheson of Stirling university will aim to ‘examine causes of drug deaths and promote action to improve the health of people who use drugs’.
As part of its brief, it will review whether or not drug laws currently reserved to Westminster should be devolved to Holyrood. It will also consider if drugs should be decriminalised altogether.
And it will examine the proposals for medically supervised drug consumption rooms, known as ‘shooting galleries’.
Critics fear the centres, aimed at addicts for whom the heroin substitute methadone has failed, will become a magnet for drug dealers and do nothing to cut addiction.
Figures published by the Scottish Government show that drug deaths north of the Border have risen steadily since records began in 1996, when there were 244 fatalities.
That figure more than doubled over the next 12 years and has now almost quadrupled.
Announcing the creation of the taskforce, Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick said ‘radical steps’ were needed.
He added: ‘What Scotland faces in terms of drugs deaths is an emergency. Every one of those deaths is a tragedy, and tackling this issue is a public health priority.
‘I want to ensure that the work of the taskforce is driven by a strong evidence base and it is my desire to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience of using drugs, and their families, are heard.
‘I will give consideration to any proposals that may help to tackle this issue.’
Yesterday, Lord Advocate James Wolffe said: ‘The justice, health and social care systems all contribute to reducing harm arising from illegal drug use. The justice, health and social care systems all contribute to reducing harm arising from illegal drug use.’
He added: ‘I welcome the formation of the drug death taskforce and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will join the task force to support its work.’