I NOTE with interest Andrew Horne’s Agenda contribution (“Five bold steps for the drug deaths task force”, The Herald, August 8).

Of course, it would be prudent for all first responders to carry Naloxone (to initially reverse overdose); and wide political support actually leading to more money for community treatment would be nice.

However, as the Portuguese themselves point out, other countries cannot simply "cut and paste" the Portugeuse decriminalisation model into their particular environments, but must customise such a model to suit their own circumstances; and of course, judgment on the performance of such a model depends on the statistics one chooses to take from it and how one interprets them – while not forgetting wider national trends within which a decriminalisation model will be immersed.

Indeed, the "for" and "against" debate regarding the performance of Portugal’s decriminalisation (not legalisation) initiative still rages.

As for drug consumption rooms, these may be a useful interim measure for individuals to access – note interim; let us not make the mistake that we made with methadone and "park" individual drug users long-term in drug consumption rooms.

If we are really serious about making a long-term dent in the drug death figures, then both support services and problematic drug users themselves must work together; the latter must take the responsibility of coming to some kind of accommodation with their "demons" such that they no longer have the need for dangerously chaotic substance use – otherwise they will always be at risk of overdose drug death.

Finally, if looking for radical solutions, the new drugs deaths task force hopefully won't make the mistake of only inviting the "naive harm reduction faithful" to the party, otherwise we’re in for just more enablement of ongoing drug addiction with its ever-present risk of drug death.

Philip Adams, Crosslee.

Put health board under scrutiny

THE contract for the new Edinburgh hospital was awarded by Lothian Health Board, and not the Scottish Government. The responsibility for this sorry state and monitoring of this project lies squarely at the feet of NHS Lothian ("Clinicians ‘pressured’ to sign off flawed hospital plan", The Herald, August 6, and Letters, August 7).

Health boards are independent bodies responsible for appointing their own chief executives and senior officers, not the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government need to ask why the independent external examinar approved the completion certificate for the building, and the subsequent faults found in the ventilation and drainage systems. How and why did they not meet the required standards?

As this £150 million hospital is delayed, Unison and the BBC call for the SNP's Health Secretary head. Yet in Liverpool, where a new £335 million hospital stands empty, a year late, neither seeks to politicise the story, and blames the contractors.

One must ask about the competence and experience of health board members in the construction of these structures.

Robert McCaw, Renfrew.

Curses …

I DON'T think there's likely to be a direct connection between high IQ and a tendency to swear more ("Swearing is good for mind, body and soul", The Herald, August 7). It's probably just that intelligent people tend to disregard abstract, essentially pointless rules in general. When my daughter and I were having a refreshment in a Sheffield pub that promoted itself as offering Real Ales and no Bad Language, she said: "Should we tell the landlord that this**** behind us has just split a ****ing infinitive?" I had to point out that if we were going to loftily disdain arbitrary precepts we'd have to allow others to do the same.

"Let's wait," I suggested, "to hear if he dangles a participle."

Robin Dow, Rothesay.