Meeting of the Parliament 30 January 2020
No, I will not.
Twelve years ago, half the number of people died—half. Even then, it was too many, but it has got worse. Something has gone wrong in the past decade and it has been even worse in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK. What has changed? It is not decriminalisation—we did not have that a decade ago. It is not consumption rooms—we did not have them either. However, we had hundreds and hundreds of rehab beds.
There are only 14 beds in Glasgow now. Across Scotland, there are fewer than 70 rehab beds. Those beds are gone and that is the responsibility of the Scottish Government. I have been open in saying that I do not think that decriminalisation and consumption rooms are the right solution. However, even those who think that they are must acknowledge that they will work only if we have high-quality treatment and rehab.
The Government seems to think that we can set up a consumption room in Glasgow and forget it. Shift the people with addiction out of sight and it will look like we have done something—job done. We could put 100 consumption rooms on every corner from Govanhill to Springburn, but if there are no residential rehab beds—and there are practically none—