A Glasgow drugs charity has taken aim at system failures after claims it's struggling to get help for a 'dying' addict.
Sisco, who works with those caught up in the cycle of addiction, took to social media in a plea for support for a young man whose life is spiraling out of control.
The charity posted a graphic picture of his syringe-scarred legs where he appears to have been injected heroin.
They claimed that the man was refused a bed at an NHS-run crisis centre in Glasgow, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
In a tweet on March 31, the charity said: "We have begged services for a week to help me save this boy's life. He is chaotic, he is dying and is using daily.
"He was refused a bed at the crisis centre and my staff was accused of being arrogant for trying to get him a place of safety. He needs a safe place now.
"They told him yesterday he would be placed on a waiting list, but he wasn't keeping his side of the deal because he couldn't manage his maintenance script."
The charity later said it was feared that if the man didn't get help soon he may not survive for long, posting: "We need help now, we took him to A&E and were assured he would be offered help, he was told he didn't need treatment and discharged. He just called me from a bridge saying he couldn't face this world anymore."
The traumatic posts continued overnight on Thursday, with Sisco later adding: "God help every service we begged for support should this man die. We fully explained his levels of chaos and how high his suicide ideation was and still is. Imagine this was cancer and he was refused treatment."
The charity went on: "If this man dies over the weekend, we have everything in writing and will seek legal action."
Sisco said it had "full permission to post this image" on Twitter, with Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance and the Scottish Government tagged into its tweets.
Annemarie Ward, from the Faces and Voices of Recovery (Favor) UK charity, said: "The case of the young man whose picture was so shocking has approached the crisis service in Glasgow and has been refused treatment, I mean what sort of crisis does someone have to be in?
"I'm not a doctor so I can't give him a diagnosis but he's extremely ill, suicidal, desperate, you saw his wounds from injecting, he's in a terrible, terrible state and if our crisis services aren't responding to a crisis any more, what are we doing?"
Ms Ward, who this week launched a campaign calling for a public inquiry into Scotland's drugs death scandal, added: "The Scottish Government have promised a quarter of a billion pound investment but what it does is replaces the money that they took out from 2010.
"It brings us back to the levels we were at in 2010 and since then both the alcohol and drug problems have got considerably worse. Covid has no doubt exacerbated addiction problems from all substances so not only do we need the reinvestment that they've put in but we need that investment doubled."
The man pictured was taken to a 'place of safety' on Friday.
Earlier this week, it emerged that last year 80 homeless people died on the streets of Glasgow.
Last year a reported 1,339 drug deaths were recorded across Scotland, a five per cent rise from 2019 - with street valium benzodiazepine-type tablets cited as causing an “unprecedented” number of drug-related deaths across the central belt.
Of these Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the highest rate of all health board areas at 30.8 deaths per 100,000 people, this was followed by Ayrshire and Arran and Tayside with rates of 27.2 and 25.7 respectively.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it was unable to comment without confirmation of the man's identity.
