Brian Whittle MSP has given a cautious welcome to the Scottish Government’s latest pledge to tackle the country’s scandalously high drug death rate.
The South Scotland MSP was speaking as a multi-year plan was announced at Holyrood to invest millions of pounds more into preventing drug deaths and supporting recovery from addiction. Brian, who is the Scottish Conservatives’ spokesman for public health, mental health, wellbeing and sport said the announcement was a step in the right direction but the devil would be in the detail.
Among the pledges was a commitment to spend £20 million on increasing the number of places available for rehabilitation across Scotland. The move follows sustained criticism by Brian and the Scottish Conservatives of the Scottish Government for having previously cut the funding for these drug and alcohol services, leading to a shortage of rehab beds.
Responding to the First Minister’s statement, Brian urged her to ensure that a substantial portion of the new funding, totalling £250 million over 5 years, is given to addiction charities and community organisations. He believes these organisations are often best placed to build trusted relationships with those seeking help.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“I’m pleased the SNP has finally accepted the need for a serious increase in funding to tackle Scotland’s shameful track record with drug and alcohol addiction. That said, the devil is in the detail and there are still unanswered questions about where and how this funding will be used.
There’s no doubt that we need to take measures right now to reduce deaths, but to change things for the long term, we need to offer more and better support to people dealing with addiction.
From my experiences speaking to addiction charities and people recovering from addiction, it’s quite clear that relationships and trust play a huge role in how successful an individual’s path to recovery is.
That makes community organisations and charities ideally placed to deliver the kind of long-term support needed by people dealing with addiction.
I want to see these groups receive a really significant amount of these new funds and I’ll be pushing the Scottish Government to deliver just that.”
