Scotland's new drugs and alcohol minister believes her own life experience can help turn around Scotland’s ongoing overdose emergency.
Elena Whitham has stepped into the addiction hot seat knowing that previous ministers have failed to make any marked improvement on the disgraceful death rate that blights the nation.
She believes her first hand knowledge of addiction within her own family, as well as the blockages that can hamper recovery, gives her a grounding that few politicians could match.
Whitham, hose family lived in the deprived Longpark housing scheme in Kilmarnock, also revealed that years of work as a homelessness outreach worker with teenagers in Ayrshire gave her bitter insight into the addiction hell that has claimed so many lives.
The MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley said: “The drugs problem is something I’ve been alive to over 20 years and that’s why I think I can bring a lot to the table in terms of understanding what it’s like actually on the ground already.
“That will allow me to shape where I want to take this mission.”
Whitham, who is acutely aware that our death numbers are still the worst in Europe, told how she dealt with dozens of young people whose lives were blighted by drugs and alcohol - which is again reaching epidemic harm levels.
She could name and closely remember at least ten young people she worked with who have lost their lives to overdoses, as Scotland incessantly fails to get to grip with the nation’s nightmarish relationship with deadly drugs.
Whitham, 49, was a key member of the START Programme in Ayrshire in 2003, where she worked with vulnerable 16-24-year-olds who homeless and who were at high risk of addiction and rough sleeping.
She also worked with Women’s Aid - dealing with many women whose children had been taken into care and who were battling addiction.
She said: “The majority of those young people had been in care and most of them also had substance abuse issues, with either drugs or alcohol,
“These were some of the most traumatised young folk that I’ve ever encountered in my life.”
One young victim had a powerful effect on Whitham.
She said: “He was 17 when I met him and a punk and coming out of care. One of his passions was, oddly, stamp collecting, and it was something he shared with me.
“I remember sitting with him, cataloguing all these stamps and that was something that stopped him from going out and buying litres of White Lightning cider.
“But just a few years ago I was watching the news and it flashed on the screen that this young man had been stabbed to death at Stevenston Cross over a ten pound heroin deal. I broke down over it for about half an hour.”
Whitham’s own family has been rocked by addiction and she was approached for help 15 years ago, during her time as deputy leader of East Ayrshire Council, where she was also responsible for housing and communities.
She said: “They were struggling to get the support they needed and when I started to do some digging I realised that nothing much had changed in the intervening years of me actually working directly with people with substance use issues and actually what was being experienced by my family member.”
The family member has been in recovery for five years.
Drug addiction in the “three towns” of Saltcoats, Ardrossan and Stevenston was also rife in 2003 but that was before the tidal wave of deadly polydrug use hit Scotland.
Years of prescribing drugs like diazepam and temazepam, by GPs helped create a generation of Scots addicted to benzodiazepines, which are deadly when mixed with alcohol, heroin, methadone and cocaine.
Whitham believes former drugs minister Angela Constance has laid groundwork that crucially brings together many different services.
But she admits the task remains a huge one.
She said: “I think it is recognised that Angela Constance has been turning a colossal, gargantuan boat around.
“But I’m seeing a real difference on the ground in terms of services that people are able to access.
“And I think the more that we look at taking a whole system’s approach, a whole family approach, that’s really going to be where we will see a massive shift in terms of numbers.”
The Scottish Government’s biggest system change ambitions were encapsulated in the Medical Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards, formed by the now defunct Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce.
But those ten key standards - giving important rights for treatment and topped by the requirement for crucial same-day prescribing for opiate substitutes like methadone - fell disastrously behind schedule.
Whitham said: “I’m looking forward to what Public Health Scotland’s benchmarking report on MAT Standards tells me in June.
“Everything that I read in terms of what’s starting to emerge from that shows me that there’s a massive shift on the ground. So I’m cautiously optimistic about what’s going to come forward.”
Whitham claims there is evidence in her home town of Kilmarnock of services becoming more joined-up.
She said: “There’s a recovery hub on the main street, John Finnie Street, in Kilmarnock.
“It has all the names of all the different organisations providing grassroots support, combined with holistic support for the whole person.
“Whether that’s support for family issues, poverty, homelessness, health issues, it’s all there. And it’s a dramatic difference.”
There were 1,330 drug deaths in Scotland in 2021 - just 1% lower than 2020, which was another unwanted record.
Between January and December 2022 there were here were 1,092 suspected drug deaths between - down 16% on the year before, sparking some case for optimism.
But the most recent quarter, between October and December 2022, showed a 26% increase, dashing hopes of any quick turnaround.
