Hansard

Last year, 1,187 people died. I say to the minister that that is the evidence.

The last time that the issue of drugs was debated in Parliament in the Government’s debating time was on 8 November 2012. It is thanks only to Opposition parties using our debating time that we have been able to discuss drug deaths or force Scottish National Party ministers to acknowledge that Scotland is facing a drug deaths emergency.

Every life lost to drug addiction is a tragedy. I know too many families in Edinburgh and across my Lothian region who have been affected by drugs and by those who prey on people living with addictions.

Scotland has seen an escalation of the drug deaths crisis over the past 10 years. Although I have welcomed the establishment of the drug deaths task force, we need to be honest and recognise that we need a radical new approach if we are to turn around the situation.

Yesterday, the task force outlined limited recommendations. Those are welcome, but ministers need to understand that we must have a root-and-branch rethink of drug rehab services. Like Monica Lennon, I consider that it was a mistake not to have cross-party involvement in the task force. To date, I have heard nothing that suggests that SNP ministers are developing the new approach that we need. I just hope that this is not another lost opportunity to tackle the crisis.

I want to make this debate about delivering something: a new drug rehab bed fund to start the work to give people hope and develop a new approach. It is time for SNP ministers and this Parliament to be totally honest. Scotland’s drug and alcohol partnerships have been underfunded for 20 years—they are the Cinderella service of our national health service. The cuts most recently made by ministers have significantly destabilised the sector. The pain is still being felt today, with vital third sector services being closed as we speak. Right in the middle of a drug deaths emergency, the fragile support is being limited and services are being removed.

I have tried to work with SNP ministers since my election to warn them of the developing crisis and to offer workable suggestions and ideas. This debate should be about finding solutions and using the powers and the budgets that the Government has to do this work. The starting principle should be the proper funding of drug support services, so that people with addictions can get the support that they need. That is what my amendment calls for. Next week, the budget comes to Parliament. Tonight, the Scottish Parliament can call on the Scottish Government to make available £15.4 million to properly fund residential rehabilitation beds.

The sad truth is that, over the past decade, the number of rehab beds has been slashed. In 2007, when this Government came to power, 352 beds were available to drug treatment services; today, there are just 70. If there is one thing that we know, it is that, in the past decade, the dramatic reduction in beds has coincided with the explosion in drug deaths. Today, that must end, and a new approach to rehab and national strategy should be developed by ministers.

Over the summer recess, I undertook visits to listen to front-line workers in drug and addiction services in all parts of Scotland. From speaking to services users who have their families engaged and are trying to get their lives back together, it was abundantly clear to me, as the minister has outlined, that access to services is a postcode lottery.

I was hugely impressed by what I saw at the safe as houses project in West Dunbartonshire. That is genuinely the only service that I have seen that truly embeds the principle of wraparound care for individuals. That needs to be embedded in all services.

For people living with addictions whom I have met, one of the key aspects to their lives is, as the minister mentioned, childhood trauma and ACEs, often stemming from their being sexually abused. For many, because of their zero self-worth or guilt, or because of their simply using drugs as a coping mechanism, substance misuse quickly spirals out of control.

We often hear stories in the chamber—I make no apologies for raising them—of the crisis that our mental health services face. We need bespoke substance misuse mental health services for those who need them, and they need to be developed as soon as possible. Only the third sector has the capacity to achieve that.

Over 30 years, we have built a system that is based on sustaining addiction, which does not try to address the underlying reasons for addiction. We need a radical new approach to access to mental health services. Let us be honest: that capacity is not in the NHS, so we need funding for the third sector.

We all want action that turns the current situation around, which even ministers accept is an emergency. If SNP ministers genuinely want a transformational approach—I hope that they do—we need to take forward more than what has been outlined today. We need an approach that covers drug and alcohol abuse, treatment, education and recovery. Only then can we, as a country, deliver the change that will help to save lives now and prevent a future generation of drug deaths and substance abuse destroying individuals, families and communities.

Regardless of party politics, we all want this unacceptable situation in Scotland turned around. That will take leadership and an honest approach to understanding that the services that we hope can address substance misuse in communities around Scotland are broken.

I move amendment S5M-20635.1, to leave out from “notes” to end and insert:

“, and calls on the Scottish Government to provide £15.4 million for residential rehabilitation beds in the upcoming Scottish Budget.”