Scotland's new First Minister has been urged to put the country’s shameful drug deaths crisis to the top of his list of priorities.
Critics believe Humza Yousaf and other leadership candidates placed too little focus on the enduring emergency, claiming the SNP have failed to make any brave decisions while the deaths have piled up.
Despite increased funding, the latest annual death count is 12 per cent worse than when the short-lived Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce was formed in 2019.
Annemarie Ward, CEO of the FAVOR charity, condemned former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s national mission on drugs for failing to make a proper dent on the rate of deaths.
She said: “What we’re looking at now is a sorry picture of failure. When the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce was formed they claimed it was set up to get fast results but the latest drug deaths stats show things are 12 per cent worse.
“Likewise, the drugs minister Angela Constance said she wanted to do things better and faster but she has disappeared through a revolving door to a new department and there is no evidence of any real improvement.
“We are spending money on the same failing approaches.”
Ward said she has little faith in the new drugs and alcohol minister Elena Whitham bringing better results than Constance, who was promoted by Yousaf to Justice Secretary.
She said: “It pains me to say it but Elena Whitham will very likely listen to all the important appeals about radical reform.
“She’ll no doubt be impressed by it but she’ll go away and speak to the same officials and we’ll see the funding go to the same failing organisations and strategies that we’ve been turning to for many years.
“The problem is that our current system is broken and it needs a root-and-branch rebuild. Anyone can see there are too many people who are being held in addiction and are not getting better.”
She added: “We need to rip up all the systems we have in place and start again because we are meeting people where they are – in a hole – and offering no way of getting out.”
Ward slammed the SNP for refusing to support the Right to Recovery Bill, penned by FAVOR and campaigner Stevie Wishart, which gives people in addiction the right to choose a drug treatment they think will work.
Wishart said the stagnation in progress on drugs means the time is ripe for an overhaul of current strategies.
He said: “Our Bill is all about giving rights to people with addiction issues to different types of treatment that they believe will work for them.
“That could be harm reduction, it could be for detox or it could be rehab or whatever they believe will improve their lives at the time.
“We are still hearing of many people who are being blocked from treatment.
“The same kind of rights are enshrined in housing and in mental health care, so it does not make sense that people are denied this with addiction.
“The time is ripe for the Scottish Government to take over this Bill and make it happen.”
Martin Powell, of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said the Scottish Government’s flagship Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards for drug treatment are being applied far too slowly.
And he slammed the failure to deliver on a promise to set up drug consumption rooms.
He said: “By now we’d want at least five to 10 per cent annual drops in deaths if the Scottish Government’s approach were to be considered a success.
“Emblematic of this grindingly slow progress is the failure to deliver the promised Overdose Prevention Centres, where people use their own drugs with trained staff present to treat overdoses.
“The Scottish Government wants them and Police Scotland is willing to back them. The ball was knocked over to the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain last year.
“We have the slowest game of tennis in history, with the ball sitting in her court for month after month with no explanation why.”
He added: “Hopefully the new drugs minister can encourage her to return the ball … so Scotland opens an Overdose Prevention Centre soon.”
Scottish Labour drug policy spokesperson Paul O’Kane said the drugs deaths crisis remains “a shameful stain on our society”.
He added: “Despite years of warm words and a revolving door of drugs ministers, nothing has changed.
“While the SNP talk, people are losing their lives.
“Scotland is still paying the price of SNP cuts to drugs beds and rehab. Humza Yousaf’s Government is showing a complete lack of respect for those affected by this crisis.”
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said both the SNP and Tories have refused to support internationally recognised measures for tackling the crisis.
He said: “We have consistently argued for a public health approach to drugs policy that learns the lessons for elsewhere in the world.
“We believe there is significant leeway for the Lord Advocate to put drugs consumption rooms on a legal footing.
“The Crown Office and Lord Advocate have been considering proposals for some time but while they ponder, people are dying.”
The Scottish Government said the latest quarterly report on suspected drug deaths suggests there was a 16 per cent drop compared with 2021.
The spokesperson said: “There is no doubt that Scotland would benefit from drug consumption rooms and the simplest way to deliver these would be for the UK Government to follow the evidence and give its approval.
“The Lord Advocate will consider if she can issue a statement of prosecution policy in relation to the proposal. This decision is independent of Scottish ministers.
“We are taking action now to invest and improve services to save lives. We are investing a total of £250million in our national mission on drugs over the course of this Parliament.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
READ NEXT:
Neighbour orders mum to keep kids quiet between 7am and 7pm with 'threatening' note
Scots couple who built sunroom face court as council cracks down on planning breaches
CCTV released of man in connection with serious assault in Glasgow last year
Evan Reid search cops rule out possible sighting on Scots road
Embarrassed Scots family 'treated like children' for miming along to Annie show
