Scotland's never-ending drug deaths emergency appears to be getting worse. How can that be the case?
The Daily Record has dedicated countless pages to chronicling our nation’s enduring disgrace. We would hope to be able to bring better tidings, of a nation in recovery or at least in a better place, but we seem to be stuck in one long and utterly tragic rut.
The current landscape remains a dystopian nightmare, where we are failing utterly to make any connection with those on the very edge of death. Nicola Sturgeon spoke directly to the Daily Record when she said she had taken her eye off the ball in 2021.
But what has changed since then? The Scottish Government’s MAT Standards were the flagship strategy that would bring powerful rights to those in addiction, meaning they would be guaranteed rapid treatment. The implementation has been woefully behind schedule.
Previous drugs minister Angela Constance promised rapid, independent action on drug consumption rooms, vowing Scotland would go it alone. There has been barely a peep on the subject for a year.
We have heard pledge after pledge about getting more people “into treatment”. But in too many cases that treatment consists of little more than picking up a methadone script, which is often then mixed in a cocktail with deadly street drugs.
Scotland needs to get its eye back on the ball and deliver on the promises made about getting people into better forms of treatment.
In their name
It is imperative that the Covid Inquiry gets to the truth of why so many people died. Almost a quarter of a million people throughout the UK, more than 17,000 of them in Scotland, perished as a result of the virus which swept through the country in 2020.
Thousands more are still suffering as a result of long Covid. A lack of investment, a Government preoccupied with Brexit and a failure to act quickly enough are all accusations which have already been levelled against those in power.
It is essential no stone is unturned in discovering exactly where the blame lies. Every one of the 226,977 who died was a mother, a father, a brother, a sister or a son or daughter. And their deaths tore families apart.
The inquiry must ensure preventable deaths on this scale never happen again. It is the least we owe to the memories of those that were lost.
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