THE 1264 people who died a drug-related death in Scotland 2019 were “let down by their society,” one charity boss has claimed.
Andrew Horne from We Are With You said the scale of the crisis was at odds with how the country presents itself, Horne said: “Scotland considers itself a proud, progressive and socially conscious country and I consider that to be true. But these figures are at odds with our identity.”
While progress has been made in the last year, thanks in part to the rollout of opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone, the statistics make clear there are problems with Scotland’s opioid substitution therapy programme.
Of those who died, 44% had methadone in their system.
“It’s clear from the number of deaths which involve methadone that not enough people are on the correct dose to stop them using heroin on top,” Horne added.
He also called for safe consumption facilities to be given the go-ahead to open in Scotland.
While drug laws are reserved to Westminster, health and policing is devolved to Holyrood.
The Scottish Government has long-backed introducing supervised drug consumption rooms, however the UK Government is opposed.
However, campaigners – like Peter Krykant who runs an informal consumption room from the back of his van in Glasgow city centre – argue that the Scottish Government’s chief law officer, the Lord Advocate, could provide legal cover for the rooms in the form of a “letter of comfort” stating that drug consumption rooms could operate without fear of criminal prosecution.
READ MORE: Scotland is drug death capital of the world, here's how we can shed that title
Earlier this year, he provided similar guidance for Naloxone.
However, he has so far refused to budge from his 2017 position, saying that there needs to be a change in the law at Westminster before action can be taken.
There are nearly 100 officially sanctioned drug consumption rooms across the world and with none having ever recorded an overdose death.
Professor Angela Thomas, acting president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, backed the call for the DCRs to be established. She said the figures were “absolutely heartbreaking.”
“This is a public health emergency, which requires a collaborative approach between government, public health agencies, political parties and the clinicians who are dealing with the crisis on the front line.”
Thomas continued: “The College believes that some key interventions can be taken now including the introduction of a drugs consumption room and a heroin assisted treatment programme in all major centres in Scotland as we see already in Glasgow.”
James Nicholls, CEO of Transform Drug Policy Foundation said “political stalemate and partisan squabbling” had prevented action.
He added: “As a result, Scotland has the highest drug-related death rates in the world. This has been getting worse for years, and it needs to stop now.
“Bereaved families across Scotland have the right to demand change, and ministers in Westminster and Holyrood have a duty to deliver it.”
Jolene Crawford, who lost her cousin to a drug overdose over a decade ago, and who now campaigns with Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control, said of the figures: “It is with a very heavy heart that I read the news of drug deaths in Scotland rising again to a record high, making us the drug death capital of the world.”
Crawford added: “How many more families must endure the agony of losing a loved one, like our family did? They talk, while we are dying. How many more need to be sacrificed before real action is taken?”
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