ON Monday December 14, on the eve of the publication of the latest and much-delayed Scottish drugs deaths statistics, I hosted a Zoom meeting, along with academics from the University of the West of Scotland.

Ian McPhee and Barry Sheridan have worked on drugs and social policy for many years and know all about the crisis that is causing so much carnage in working-class communities across Scotland.

At that meeting held on a Monday afternoon in December, 300 people joined us — an astonishing number, showing the huge concern there is at Scotland’s national shame as the drugs death capital of the developed world.

Drugs deaths here have doubled in just six years, trebled in the last 10, while at the same time Sheridan and McPhee’s research shows alcohol and drugs partnerships have seen their budgets slashed by 55 per cent.

In response to the crisis, the government established a drug deaths task force — it didn’t meet for six months before belatedly beginning its work.

Some of the work it is now doing is good, but it is too little, too late and with not enough funding.

It continues to focus on individualised responses but fails to tackle the wider issues.

Systemic change is required. Meaningful change has to be inclusive, collaborative and not only involve government-appointed bodies.

Such is the crisis in Glasgow that a former user, Peter Krykart, has taken it upon himself to buy and kit out an old minibus, turning it into an overdose prevention facility.

Instead of being hailed for this life-saving work funded by himself, he has instead been subjected to prosecution by Police Scotland.

And all the while government ministers and the Lord Advocate turn away when they could adopt a model similar to the Dutch, where the police are directed to avoid prosecution, but alas no direction has come forward.

Meanwhile three to four people die every day, and on the streets of our biggest city, the worst HIV outbreak in Europe has been under way for the last two years.

It doesn’t make the headlines and you will never hear about it at the the First Minister’s daily press briefing.

Indeed, such is the attitude towards this issue that when the minister rose to make a statement to Parliament about the crisis, both Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney walked out of the chamber.

While governments rightly spend billions on Covid-19 vaccines, support for businesses and subsidies for different sectors, a paltry additional £20 million was allocated to deal with the drug deaths crisis.

The minister in charge of the response is Joe Fitzpatrick. He represents the city of Dundee — the drug death capital of Europe.

Fitzpatrick is completely and utterly out of his depth and appears clueless and unable to communicate even the most simple of messages or grasp the enormity of the problem.

His credibility among those working with the drug-using community is zero but he will not take responsibility or resign for overseeing this disaster. 

The SNP never takes responsibility for anything, it is always someone else’s fault despite them being in power for 13 years.

One of the most depressing features of the state of Scottish politics in 2020 is that every issue, from dog shit to international crime, becomes a constitutional battle — and things are no different when it comes to drugs.

The nationalists’ claim that if only we had power over the Misuse of Drugs Act then we could begin to fix Scotland’s drugs problems.

I would be happy to see those powers devolved, but the claim itself is a complete red herring.

All of the regions of England, and Wales operate under the same drugs legislation as Scotland, yet we have three-and-a-half times the level of drugs deaths as anywhere else in the UK.

This argument does not stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.

So what needs to be done?

Here are just some of the suggestions I have heard from people in the sector:

• Accept that the root of the drugs crisis is poverty, hopelessness and trauma and have a measurable and clear plan of national and local priorities and funding to address this.
• Treat people as human beings and develop a plan with them to address their needs and, more importantly, their rights.
• Stop the cuts to drugs and alcohol services and fund them to the level we need — at a very minimum replacing the 55 per cent real-terms cut over the last decade.
• Create a drugs treatment guarantee for all who seek help, with the right to appropriate treatment written into it and hold government and service providers to account for delivery.
• Provide equal access to drugs to treat opiate addiction.
• Provide residential rehab for those who need and want it.
• Invest in community mental health services to meet stringent service standards and access to services.
• Bring police, community and public health funding streams together to deliver practical outcomes to help those in need.
• Set up mental health teams staffed by professionals in the field in police stations.
• Allow drugs users who have not responded to other forms of treatment to be prescribed heroin in a medical setting.
• Extend the training of people in the application of naloxone and, crucially, fund this role out where people are dying.
• Establish early warning programmes to alert people of new drugs or risky behaviours on the streets.
• Implement governance and accountability processes to ensure that those who are funded and responsible for delivering change are held to account.
• Provide drugs testing facilities to reduce harms and deaths and to educate users.
• Have a concerted long-term project to address the street benzodiazepine crisis.
• Extend the provision of mental health crisis centres like the Penumbra one in Leith which provide emergency crisis accommodation and a safe place of respite for a short period. It’s the only one of its kind in Scotland — we need a network of such places across the country.
• Get people off the streets and into accommodation with support — the HIV outbreak in Glasgow is predominantly affecting homeless street drugs users.
• Stop discharging people from hospital or prison onto the streets with nowhere to go and no follow-up care.
• Stop allowing people to drop out of the treatment system — these are the people that are dying as they are left with no support and no hope.
• End the cuts to youth work, housing support, community education, funding for the voluntary sector and social work — these are the services that civilise us as a society.
• Provide guaranteed long-term funding to projects we know work like Aid n Abet in Edinburgh working with offenders and young people.
• Follow what progressive police and crime commissioners in England and Wales are doing where drugs and alcohol offenders sign a contract to undergo mental health treatment and help is provided to address problematic drugs use.
• Set up overdose prevention facilities in our major cities and direct the police not to intervene in their work.
• Establish a network of community outreach workers who will go into communities seeking out those to engage them in services.
• Have a funded local and national strategy of early intervention.
• Support mutual aid groups as one of a suite of treatment options.
• Ensure that there is an annual report and debate in Parliament on the publication of drugs deaths statistics.

These are a just a few pieces of the 1,000-piece complex jigsaw that needs built to address the crisis in working-class communities.

Scotland is ashamed by these statistics, every one representing a son, daughter, mother, father, friend or neighbour. We have every right to feel ashamed.

Neil Findlay is Labour MSP for Lothian (Region).