Former justice minister slates SNP over drug deaths crisis
NICOLA Sturgeon was yesterday accused of running away from Scotland’s drug crisis amid claims she was ‘happy’ to blame Westminster.
Former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill attacked the Scottish Government on the issue, branding its response to a shocking rise in drugs deaths as ‘inadequate’.
He personally hit out at Miss Sturgeon, urging her to take control of the problem as ‘no one else can solve it’.
It emerged this week that Scotland has the highest rate of drug deaths in the developed world.
The number of drug-related fatalities soared to a record 1,187 last year – or more than three a day, a 27 per cent increase in just one year.
SNP ministers have called for heroin ‘shooting galleries’ where addicts can inject their own drugs under medical supervision. This has been rejected by the UK Government, however, leading Miss Sturgeon and colleagues to accuse Westminster of failing to act.
Writing in The Scotsman yesterday, Mr MacAskill hit out at Theresa May’s government and said it was partly responsible for the rise in drugs deaths following a failure to consider radical proposals.
He added: ‘The position of the Scottish Government is inadequate. Calling for action or powers to be devolved to implement drug consumption rooms is welcome.
‘But as the problem has moved beyond the Trainspotting generation, so must the solutions. Consumption rooms are only a Daily Mail, July 17 small part of how to address a huge problem and, alone, would be a woefully insufficient response.’
Mr MacAskill said drug users of the 1980s and 1990s now dying from the effects of longterm use of heroin is no longer the biggest problem. He said other substances such as cocaine and ‘street Valium’ are cheaply available for addicts.
Mr MacAskill added: ‘Drugs are an issue that Nicola Sturgeon has run from and where she appears happy the problem rests with Westminster. Creating an independent nation means having charge of the economic levers and the social controls that are necessary.
‘It also means taking responsibility for tackling social ills that afflict our land and the demons that prey on our people. Nobody else is doing this to us, and no one else can solve it but us.’
Scottish Conservative public health spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘The SNP has attempted to politicise Scotland’s devastating drug deaths toll from the outset. This intervention by a senior Nationalist figure is particularly shameless.
‘The SNP government has had sole control of health and justice since 2007, in which time the number of annual fatalities has more than doubled.
‘That suggests to me the SNP needs less influence over drugs policy, not more.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The heart-breaking drug death figures show exactly why the UK Government, who remain responsible for drug laws, need to stop blocking evidence-based attempts to save lives.’