2,000 drug addicts to get free phones

‘Digital inclusion’ plan funded by taxpayers is branded waste of cash

DRuG addicts are to be given smartphones as part of a strategy to wean them off their habit.

The SNP’s Drug Deaths Taskforce – set up to tackle the worst narcotics mortality crisis in Europe – has recommended at least 2,000 Scots be given handsets plus free internet and data bundles.

The move is aimed at reducing ‘digital exclusion’, allowing addicts to develop skills and confidence.

However, critics claim the £2.75million scheme will be ‘like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic’.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘This project should surely have been a non-starter. The money being spent on it should be directed elsewhere to fund vital rehabilitation beds for those who need them most.

‘Far too many people who want to get off drugs simply can’t get the treatment they need. Drug deaths are Scotland’s national shame and it is Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP Government who shamefully took their eye off the ball on this issue.’

A total of 1,264 Scots died from drugs in 2019, the highest number since records began in 1996 and the sixth consecutive year with an unprecedented figure. The taskforce was set up in 2019 to get a grip of the crisis.

It has previously advised that abstinence should no longer be the goal of treatment and that taking drugs should not attract ‘social stigma’ as ‘many people use a range of substances without harm’.

Now in its latest interim report, the taskforce states: ‘[We have] partnered with the Scottish Government Digital Health and Care Directorate and Drug Policy Division to cofund a Digital Inclusion project worth £2.75million.

‘over the next two years the funding will be used to supply and distribute smartphones and other appropriate devices, provide data and to build the skills and confidence of people using services and those who support them. The initiative will reach a minimum of 2,000 service users and 200 staff.’

However, Anne-Marie Ward, chief executive of the addiction charity Favor Scotland, said: ‘Giving smartphones to users is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

‘There is a middle-class naivety at the Drug Deaths Taskforce that is trying to sort

‘Deckchairs on the Titanic’ ‘Middle-class naivety’

out a problem they don’t even come close to understanding.

‘People are dying in more numbers than we’ve seen in any part of the world at any time in history. We are not managing this.’

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘Many people at risk of drug-related death have no means of seeking support online.

‘This initiative will target people most at risk, giving them support and skills as well as access at any time to lifesaving support.’