Hansard

First, I add my thanks to David Torrance for bringing this debate to the chamber and allowing us to once again shine a light on a very important subject—especially at this time of year.

As I have mentioned before, early on in my time in this place, I spent some time at Addaction, looking to see whether I could speak to some of its service users as part of the Health and Sport Committee’s inquiry into early intervention and the preventative agenda. I wanted to get down to the brass tacks of what may have sent service users along that path and what other choices had been available to them at that time. Let me tell you, Presiding Officer, that was a real eye-opener.

People in recovery suggested that I was under the misapprehension that they had had a really terrible time. On the contrary, some said that to start with, they were having a great time. They were down the pub with their mates; “merry” was maybe not the exact word they used, but I am sure that people get the gist. That could go on for as long as a few years before their life really started to unravel, as they lost their job, their family, their house and, finally, their so-called friends down the pub. Where they got their next drink became the real driving force in their lives, to the exclusion of everything else.

That is a very isolated and lonely place to be, and once a person is in that cycle, it is extremely difficult to break. With addiction comes the associated mental health issues. More often than not, there is an underlying mental health issue that has taken a person down that path in the first place.

An issue that consistently arose was that some mental health services would not engage with people who were still in the grip of their addiction. Those people were sent instead to third-sector agencies that are tasked with tackling such addiction, but the problem with that is that addiction agencies are generally not equipped to deal with complex mental health problems. Although the agencies would never turn those cases away, without mental health intervention alongside the addiction services, the chances of a successful outcome are much reduced. Many of those cases are people who are struggling because of trauma and poor mental health and, without multi-agency support for the individual plan, conversion rates can be poor. In rural areas, such as the constituencies that I represent, that trauma can go unseen until it becomes a major issue.

Recent reports have shown that the lowering of the alcohol limit for driving has, at least initially, not had the results that we had all hoped. I do not think that that will necessarily come as a surprise. The people who would be most affected by the policy of reducing the alcohol limit are likely to be those who would consider popping into the pub for a swift pint or a glass of wine after work with colleagues. They would recognise that the new laws would possibly put them close to or beyond the legal limit and they would most likely forgo that after-work drink or, at least, replace it with a soft drink. The people who would get behind the wheel of a car after a few drinks are highly unlikely to pay attention to any change to the legal limit. Therefore, people who would have been caught by the police for drink driving prior to the tightening up of the laws would still be prepared to take that risk.

The reduction of the legal drink-driving limit is not enough in itself. In order to be effective, a long-term public campaign needs to accompany the change in legislation. An on-going education programme, with policies to tackle the underlying drivers of alcohol and substance abuse, needs to be in evidence. We recently had a debate in Parliament on the alcohol and drugs strategy, which involved very good input from across the chamber. That conversation needs to continue and evolve into positive action.

I have long been an advocate of the need to support the third sector with a more collaborative approach involving the NHS and council-led services. David Torrance quite rightly highlighted the great work that is going on in his constituency. I would like to thank the many third-sector agencies and our NHS for the fantastic work that they are doing in East Ayrshire, against a backdrop of limited resource.

Addiction is a health issue and I know that it will continue to get support from across the chamber.