South Scotland MSP Brian Whittle has challenged the Scottish Government to tackle Scotland’s drug death crisis with a greater focus on the issues that drive addiction.
Making his final speech of the parliamentary session ahead of the elections in May, Scottish Conservative Brian highlighted how issues like poor mental health, childhood trauma, and a lack of local resources and employment can all contribute to someone developing an addiction.
Brian, who has long advocated for addiction support to be more wide ranging, with increased efforts to prevent addiction argued that providing support to people dealing with addiction was vital, but the long term solution has to be about preventing addiction.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“Throughout my last five years in Holyrood, the scale of Scotland’s drug deaths crisis has only ever grown.
I’ve spent a lot of time speaking to the healthcare and charity workers who are in the front line of dealing with this crisis and understanding the challenges they face. From this, it’s become clear that to me that not only are the Scottish Government failing to support existing treatment services but their focus is too narrow.
The causes of addiction are complex and each person has their own story to tell, but we know there are common factors and we need to find ways to deal with them.
With the right early interventions and support, we can not only save lives, but help turn lives around. I want to see the next Scottish Government working much harder to prevent addiction rather than just treating its effects.”
