By Paul Sweeney
WITH one person dying from a preventable drug-related death every six hours in Scotland, the need for urgent action has never been greater.
The latest available figures are the culmination of an alarming trend; a trend that has seen drug death rates increase every single year since 2013, peaking at a total of 1,339 in 2020. To illustrate the scale of the problem in Scotland, in the intervening years since devolution, drug deaths have claimed more lives than Covid-19.
Those Covid-19 deaths saw the Scottish Government spring into action, and rightly so. Without its interventions, the situation would have been far worse. Sadly, it begs the question of why the Government’s response to Scotland’s drug death crisis has been lacklustre and glacial in its pace.
Last week I published my Drug Death Prevention (Scotland) Bill, a proposal that, if successful, would see overdose prevention centres established in Scotland.
Overdose prevention centres do exactly as their name suggests – they prevent overdoses, and they save the lives of people who are dying right now. The concept is simple, people who are injecting drug users can bring drugs to the facility and self-administer them in a safe, sanitised environment under the supervision of trained medical practitioners who are equipped to reverse any accidental overdoses that occur.
Far from being radical or controversial, they are a basic and effective public health intervention first conceptualised in the 1980s and can now be found in more than 150 locations around the world. Their efficacy is indisputable – for more than 30 years, tens of thousands of people have used overdose prevention centres worldwide and there has never been a single recorded incident of fatal overdose.
I have seen first-hand the positive impact that they could make in Scotland. I volunteered at the UK’s first unofficial pilot project in Glasgow’s Trongate between 2020 and 2021. It was set up by my friend Peter Krykant and pushed the envelope on what is possible if we are determined to prevent overdoses, save lives, and provide people who use drugs with some respect and dignity.
In the short time that the pilot project ran, there were more than 900 recorded supervised injections of heroin and cocaine, with nine overdoses reversed. Put simply, that is nine lives saved that would otherwise have been lost.
One thing is increasingly clear – as well intentioned as the Scottish Government is, it is being left to opposition MSPs to drive the pace of change in this area. I am determined to see these facilities established, and I truly hope that people across Scotland share that determination.
Ultimately every life has value, and everyone deserves to be shown dignity and compassion regardless of their circumstances.
Together, we can save lives.
Together, we can end Scotland’s drug death crisis.
Paul Sweeney is Scottish Labour & Co-operative MSP for Glasgow
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