Funding to address Scotland’s drug harm ‘public health emergency’ should be ring fenced and prioritised on prevention, says the report from the ‘people’s panel’ set up to look into the issue last year.
A culture change will be needed to address the problem, says the document, which has now been sent to MSPs. While the panellists acknowledged that progress had been made – particularly with the country’s naloxone programme and the opening of Glasgow’s consumption room – there was an urgent need for ‘brave and bold action’.
This should also include public awareness-raising campaigns, better information sharing between government agencies, and more involvement of people with lived experience. ‘The pay and fair working conditions of people with lived experience needs to be equitable with that of equivalent public sector workers in the drug and alcohol field,’ the report adds.
‘More radical pilot schemes’ were also needed, along with a renewed focus on 18-44-year-old men who, while making up a large proportion of the death statistics, were ‘being missed by services’.
A ‘lack of urgency’ in responding to drug harms had reinforced the stigma already associated with them, the report states. ‘The panel strongly believe that the same conversations keep happening, with the same actions being agreed but not enough has been implemented. The panel have concluded that the length of time taken to address this issue is unacceptable.’
The most recent Scottish drug death figures saw a total of almost 1,200 fatalities – the highest rate in Europe – with 80 per cent involving an opiate. A report from the country’s auditor general late last year found that while the Scottish Government had made some progress in implementing treatment standards and increasing residential treatment capacity, it had still been ‘slow to progress’ key strategies like its workforce plan. The auditor general’s previous report had concluded that Scotland’s treatment sector was characterised by ‘complex’ delivery leading to problems with accountability and difficulties in tracking what the funding was actually achieving.
The people’s panel was requested by the cross-committee on tackling drug deaths and drug harms, and formed after the Scottish Parliament sent letters to 5,000 randomly selected residential addresses. Twenty-three panel members were then selected, who met over the course of two weekends to hear evidence from people working in the sector, people with lived experience, academics, researchers and others. Their report will now ‘help inform the cross-committee’s scrutiny of matters related to reducing drug deaths and tackling problem drug use,’ the Scottish Parliament says.
‘I found participating in the people’s panel humbling,’ said panel member Mairi McIntosh. ‘The team at the Scottish Parliament organised a diverse range of experts and worked hard to lay out the worrying and rapid escalation in drug-related deaths and harms in Scotland. All the evidence we heard highlighted the urgency for action from the Scottish government to implement brave and lasting change. I am hopeful that our report shows that as voices from across Scotland, representing different backgrounds and lives, some directly affected by the issues of drug harm and death and others not, that we want the Scottish government to acknowledge the causes and barriers like stigma and discrimination and realise that we cannot afford to not take bold action now.’
People’s panel on reducing drug harm and deaths in Scotland: final report available here