SNP’S FAILED STRATEGIES WILL NEVER BE THE ANSWER
SCOTLAND’S drug death toll has soared beyond 1,200 for a year – a heartbreaking statistic but also an i ndictment of the SNP’s appalling track record.
As the news broke, we again heard statements such as ‘largest number ever recorded’, ‘worst in Europe’, ‘three times the rate for England and Wales’ and ‘double the deaths recorded a decade ago’.
Yet behind each of the statements is a mother, father, daughter, son, friend – a person. A person whose death is a tragic loss of life that could have been avoided.
The SNP has been in power in Scotland for more than 13 years. The drug death rate has almost tripled since it took office.
Yet, when faced with this fact the Nationalists claim they are doing ‘everything in their power’ to tackle drug deaths. They often point to their Drug Deaths Taskforce.
When the taskforce was created in 2019, Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick said the group would examine the factors behind the deaths and advise on action. Yet, more than a year on, yesterday’s numbers speak for themselves – we’ve seen zero progress. Recovery groups are saying Scotland has gone backwards.
They say the Drug Deaths Taskforce insists on pursuing the same failed options that have got us to this tragic point. Again, the only option being presented i s an increase in methadone prescriptions, which don’t help people get off drugs and get better.
The Scottish Government’s next point, shamefully, is one it is all too familiar with raising – the constitution. In response to yesterday’s figures ‘continuing to push for action in relation to matters reserved to the UK Government’ was one of the SNP’s top actions in how they would reduce the numbers of deaths.
Ten years ago, drug deaths were far lower, and we had the same laws across the UK as we do now. What has changed is we used to have a wide range of rehabilitation services and we used to have hundreds of rehab beds. The SNP must accept its failed strategies have got us here. Its priority should be increasing the number of people who can access treatment now.
In 2007, there were more than 300 residential rehab beds, but this number has been cut and cut. This year almost half of Scots in residential rehab have found difficulty in accessing rehab and services.
Last year, the founder of Castle Craig Hospital in Peeblesshire, one of Scotland’s residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics, said Scotland’s NHS had abandoned sending patients there, yet the Netherlands sends hundreds to this renowned facility every year.
WE know many people would benefit from residential treatment but aren’t able to access it. That is why the Scottish Conservatives have joined recovery groups such as Phoenix Futures, FAVOR Scotland and Jericho House, and are calling on the Scottish Government to provide more funding for rehab beds.
The current system is not fit for purpose. It fixates on treating heroin use by increasing methadone prescriptions instead of rehabilitation and recovery programmes – an approach that has failed for years.
The statistics show how outdated this approach is – around 29 per cent of deaths were down to cocaine use. Increasing methadone prescriptions won’t help those people.
We need to start helping people to get off drugs and get well. We can’t try to manage addictions and leave it there. More of the same is not an option. If we keep pursuing the same failed approach, we will just get the same disastrous results.