SNP snubbed UK plan to tackle drug deaths

Offer to join successful initiative was rejected THREE times

THE SNP has repeatedly snubbed a successful UK-wide project aimed at tackling the scourge of drug deaths – despite being asked to join in three times.

Project ADDER (Addiction, Disruption, Diversion, Enforcement and Recovery) is already making headway in some of England and Wales’s worst-hit drug areas.

The major initiative was launched in January with a £148 million investment looking at law enforcement, treatment and recovery provision.

And early evidence, seen by The Scottish Mail on Sunday, shows that in the pilot area of Blackpool, more than 80 criminal gangs supplying the drug trade have been intercepted in just seven months since the scheme’s launch.

Its success, which includes a 12 per cent increase in the number of drug users being admitted for treatment in an area that last year had the worst drug death toll in England, means it has now been extended to eight new regions south of the Border

In contrast, Scotland has again been crowned the drug death capital of Europe, with figures released on Friday showing in 2020 there were 1,339 people who died of drug overdoses or complications, a 5 per cent increase on the previous year.

Now, ahead of a second UK drugs ministerial summit this autumn, Westminster’s Policing Minister Kit Malthouse has urged the Scottish Government to sign up to the successful ADDER initiative, stressing the offer to join in is still on the table.

He said: ‘Any death due to drug misuse is a tragedy and I am appalled at the number of people who have died at the hands of this poison in Scotland. We want to save lives, prevent crime and tackle the scourge of drugs across all parts of the UK.

‘That is why we are clamping down on criminal gangs and supporting more people through treatment, including through Project ADDER.

‘We want to work with the devolved Scottish Government on this issue to prevent more deaths and build on the early success of this programme.’

Project ADDER was originally rolled out in Blackpool, Hastings, Middlesbrough, Norwich and Swansea Bay. It will be extended to London boroughs Hackney and Tower Hamlets, three local authorities in the Liverpool City Region, in Liverpool City, Wirral and Knowsley, and Bristol, Newcastle and Wakefield.

Prior to its launch, the UK Government laid out its plans with the Scottish Government’s Drug Deaths Task Force.

Minutes from October 7, 2020, show the Scottish Government felt it was ‘important for Scotland to take a collegiate role in working with the UK Government’ on the programme ‘but that the criminal justice lead made this difficult’.

In January 2021, the SNP received a letter from Mr Malthouse acknowledging Scotland’s Drug Deaths Taskforce had agreed to be part of the Project ADDER Partnership Learning Network, but

‘I’m appalled at the number of people who have died’ ‘We are clamping down on criminal gangs’

calling on the Scottish Government to sign up to the actual initiative.

That same month, Scottish Tory Donald Cameron called for clarity on the issue from the First Minister, who said she would consider it, adding she was not ‘ideological’ about the issue.

Yet on March 22 this year, Mr Malthouse was forced to try again.

He said at a Scottish Affairs Committee meeting that he was keen for the four nations to work together on drug policy.

However, the Scottish Government is yet to incorporate the project into its strategy.

A spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government has taken a different approach to the UK Government by implementing a public health approach to drug use.’