Public Health Crisis (Drugs and Alcohol)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 28 November 2018.

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Photo of John Mason John Mason Scottish National Party

This is an area of great complexity, as Jenny Marra said. There are no easy answers to the challenges that we face in alcohol and drug abuse and dependence. I presume that, if there were, we or other people would have found them.

It seems to me that there are health and justice angles to the issue, but I am happy to agree that we should place more emphasis on drugs as a health problem without losing sight of the disruption that can be caused in the lives of the people who are impacted around the edges. I frequently receive complaints from constituents whose lives have been made a misery by the dealing that is going on in their closes. Purchasers arrive at all hours of the day and night, sometimes going to the wrong door, and older people, in particular, live in fear in their flats. I have gone into closes—including in nice blocks of flats—and found needles and other paraphernalia on the landings. Some residents are looking for evictions and enforcement of the law.

In my constituency, we have a particular problem in the Calton area. I visited a sheltered housing complex recently, from which we could see people waiting in the street for drugs to be delivered. A short time back, I met two sizeable local retailers in the area. They have had people come into their premises to use drugs or because they were running away from someone due to a related matter. Outside, there is a problem with prostitution, which appears to be linked to the drug problem. One retailer removed all the benches from outside their store because people were using that space to take drugs. BT was asked to move a phone box that seemed to be used only for dealing drugs, but it was not keen to do so.

Meanwhile, the police do their best. A while ago, they closed down a major dealer’s house. However, that fragmented and scattered the problem, so that more locations were used for selling than had previously been the case. The police tell me that dealers use drones to get warning of police in the area.

There is clearly a problem, and we are not going to solve it only by controlling supply; we must also tackle demand. A suggestion on page 31 of the strategy document is that we provide safer drug consumption facilities, where drugs can be used that were, as the document euphemistically says, “obtained elsewhere”. I understand that to mean that drugs would continue to be bought and sold illegally but could be used in a safer, more controlled environment. The proposal has some merit, but I remain ill at ease with a proposed future system that would have a criminal element built into it.

Another major option, if we move to more of a health model, is heroin-assisted treatment. I am much more comfortable with that model. If this really is a health issue, it seems to me better that the substance and the using of it are dealt with in a controlled health setting. It has to be said that local residents and businesses are not entirely comfortable with HAT, though. They are concerned that such provision in their areas would bring other problems, as happened in the context of methadone treatment.

Another issue is that people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs or gambling have underlying problems that need to be addressed, and some of those problems will take a considerable time to solve. I am pleased to see that the Conservative policy paper, “Scottish Conservative Addiction Strategy: Life Plan” mentions, on page 2, that there are often “deeper underlying problems”. The two examples that it gives are mental health and family breakdown. However, as other members have said, there is no mention of poverty or of a general lack of hope, which may be the reasons why people escape into addiction.

I welcome the emphasis on the need for a person-centred approach rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Members may have heard about Calton Athletic football club, which was run by Davie Bryce and which had a specific model for getting young guys heavily into sport. The club had some great successes but would clearly not be the right model for everyone. There are many other local projects in my constituency and throughout Glasgow, of which I will mention just a few: the recovery cafes in Shettleston and at Parkhead Nazarene church; Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs; the Family Addiction Support Service; Alcoholics Anonymous; Al-Anon; the Simon Community; Turning Point Scotland; the Arch resettlement centre in Bridgeton; and some groups that are particularly focused on women—the list goes on. The third sector must be given tremendous plaudits for the work it is doing.

It is extremely important that we look at individuals and deliver services that address their specific circumstances. We know that, with smoking cessation, some people stop instantly, some reduce gradually and others use a substitute such as vaping. We must assume the same with drugs and other addictions—that we need a variety of options. I am, therefore, slightly wary of the Conservative approach, which can come across as everyone going down one specified route.

The Conservative policy paper makes some reasonable points, including about early intervention and about increasing the role of pharmacists and the third sector, all of which I would support. However, when I read on page 3 that the Conservatives want

“a dramatic expansion of rehabilitation services”,

and, on page 5, that they want an increase in the number of addicts who are in treatment, I imagine that there might be a cost to that. When the Conservatives consider that we are already too highly taxed and that public services should be reduced, it is difficult to see how that could work.