Labour warning after minister meets tycoon
By Paul Hutcheon
Scottish Political Editor
THE Scottish government has had talks with its biggest donor about giving heroin addicts neuro-electric therapy (Net).
Brian Souter, the bus tycoon who gave Alex Salmond's party £500,000 last year, had a private meeting with Drugs Minister Fergus Ewing on the controversial treatment. The Stagecoach chairman was looking for support into a "cure" that involves sending an electric current into an addict's brain.
The SNP administration will announce its anti-drugs policy in the summer, a strategy combining abstinence and harm-reduction initiatives.
Ewing, deputy justice minister, has held talks with service providers and other stakeholders in the anti-drugs field, including a meeting with the Souter Charitable Trust (SCT).
The SCT, fronted by Souter and his wife, funds anti-drugs projects to pursue its aims of poverty relief and the "advancement of religion".
A minute of the January meeting noted that Souter and Ewing discussed the role of the independent sector in providing services for addicts, drug classification laws and neuro-electric therapy.
Net is a treatment developed in the 1960s by a Scottish neurosurgeon - the late Dr Meg Patterson. The therapy involves passing an electric current into an addict's brain via a battery pack.
A trial organised last year by The Third Step, a Glasgow charity, was set up for 12 heroin addicts who were said to have benefited from the treatment.
Net research is supported by former first minister Jack McConnell, Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie and businessman Joe Winston, but the medical profession is sceptical.
Souter is an advocate of Net and is trying to win support for research.
John Mullen of The Third Step said of Souter's interest in the therapy: "Joe Winston has been talking to people like Brian Souter for some time now to get support."
However, opposition politicians are concerned about Souter getting involved in social policy.
Labour MSP George Foulkes said: "Brian Souter is driven by evangelism and people should be aware of how extensive his influence is in the SNP. It was evident when the SNP abandoned their policy on re-regulating the buses and it seems that drugs policy is another area where he has an influence."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "There was no discussion about SCT getting government funding at the meeting. On the contrary, SCT supports voluntary drugs-related work, such as the Bethany Trust.
"As has been disclosed under Freedom of Information, subjects discussed at the meeting were the work being done in the independent sector, the need for early intervention, drug classification and neuro-electric therapy.
"Net was raised by the trust as a form of therapy in which it sees merit. It does not currently form part of the government's approach to the drugs strategy. The effectiveness of any therapy must be robustly and fully evaluated by appropriate agencies."
A spokesman for the SCT said: "We don't want to say anything further to what is contained in the minute."
