New approach to tackling shocking drugs death toll

Aug 14 2008 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

A LANARKSHIRE MSP said this week that the high level of drug-related deaths in the county showed that the ‘harm-reduction’ approach to tackling the drugs menace does not work.

Statistics released last week show there were 48 drug-related deaths in Lanarkshire in 2007 – a rise of eight over the previous year.

Conservative Central Scotland MSP Margaret Mitchell said she found it “particularly worrying” that Lanarkshire represented 11% of the Scottish total of 455 drug-related deaths.

But Scotland, she said, was “waking up to the unfolding disaster of drugs abuse” and its government appeared to be moving away from merely managing the problem.

Announcing the drug-related death figures last week, Scottish Government community safety minister Fergus Ewing claimed that a new drugs strategy ‘The Road to Recovery’ – supported by Parliament in June – would have a positive impact on reducing deaths.

“For two decades Scotland has been in the grip of drugs – reacting and responding to the impact they have had on our people, our public services, and our economic potential,” he commented.

“We have drawn up an action plan specifically aimed at tackling drug-related deaths, based on far-reaching recommendations from experts in the field and service users.”

Mrs Mitchell said the ‘Road to Recovery’ represented a move away from a ‘harm-reduction’ approach pursued by previous administrations towards one leading to addicts shunning drugs altogether.

“The Scottish Conservatives have worked relentlessly to create a new national drugs strategy based on recovery leading to abstinence,” she pointed out.

“The attempts of the last decade to merely manage the problem, based on harm reduction and an over-reliance on methadone, have quite simply not worked.”

And she added: “It appears that at last our call for a fresh approach is being heeded. This new political will must not lose momentum.”

Scottish Drugs Forum director David Liddell said the Government’s strategy was a “massive change” in approaching the drugs’ problem.

He added: “It is a highly ambitious plan of action which will demand various agencies to change the way they work.

“It is vital that they also have the energy, vision and appropriate resources to see it through.”