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Drug deaths in Scotland hit record high


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8 minutes ago, Ross. said:

Do we have a list of the most deprived areas in the UK? I'm sure in the past it was heavily skewed towards the North of England and Scotland. That would probably account for a big part of it.

The 2019 reports showed that after Scotland the rate of drug deaths was highest in the North East of England and in Northern Ireland. We were roughly 3 times worse than either of them though. 

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1 minute ago, SamuraiJock said:

The 2019 reports showed that after Scotland the rate of drug deaths was highest in the North East of England and in Northern Ireland. We were roughly 3 times worse than either of them though. 

Give it a few years and they will overtake us. All our junkies are dying now. We'll have peaked too early and they'll take home the gold medal.

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'Wee nippy 👏'

'Standard SNP!!!'

Just a few of the usual comments from Tories on Twitter.

Yes, Nicola Sturgeon can stop people becoming junkies m8.

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1 hour ago, SamuraiJock said:

 

Any political party that tells you they'd fix the drug deaths problem quickly is talking out their hole

Sturgeon should just come out and say she can't fix it and needs help doing so, rather than firing ministers every year and giving the impression that if only the right politicians were in charge, drugs deaths would go down.

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34 minutes ago, sparky88 said:

Sturgeon should just come out and say she can't fix it and needs help doing so, rather than firing ministers every year and giving the impression that if only the right politicians were in charge, drugs deaths would go down.

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48 minutes ago, sparky88 said:

Sturgeon should just come out and say she can't fix it and needs help doing so, rather than firing ministers every year and giving the impression that if only the right politicians were in charge, drugs deaths would go down.

 

The right politicians in charge should be capable of addressing these so called deprived areas, where drugs related deaths are far more prevalent. 

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1 minute ago, ICTJohnboy said:

 

The right politicians in charge should be capable of addressing these so called deprived areas, where drugs related deaths are far more prevalent. 

Yes, but not in time for next years figures. Or the year after, or the year after. You'll be looking at a generation in between action and result at least.

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Yes, but not in time for next years figures. Or the year after, or the year after. You'll be looking at a generation in between action and result at least.
Regardless of party that would involve politicians looking beyond the next election and making some potentially unpopular decisions. It remains to be seen if politicians are in it for the greater good or their own.
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3 hours ago, Frank Sobotka said:

Which party should people vote for to solve Scotland's drug problem ?

The Scottish Greens have pledged to end the war on drugs and open safe consumption/crisis centres. I'm not aware of any other party looking to decriminalise. 

Find it funny watching all the Tory supporters here and elsewhere all slapping each other on the back when the boot gets put into the SNP. The SNP have asked for drug laws to be devolved and the Tories keep saying no, because they don't want reform, they want an issue they can beat SNP with. The Tories are as much the problem as the SNP and until we stop making this a party issue we'll get nowhere. 

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29 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

The Scottish Greens have pledged to end the war on drugs and open safe consumption/crisis centres. I'm not aware of any other party looking to decriminalise. 

Except that they can't do either of the above without the UK Government's consent, so these pledges are completely irrelevant. The SNP (and IIRC Labour also) are in favour of safe consumption centres as well; they're not happening though.

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Find it funny watching all the Tory supporters here and elsewhere all slapping each other on the back when the boot gets put into the SNP. The SNP have asked for drug laws to be devolved and the Tories keep saying no, because they don't want reform, they want an issue they can beat SNP with. The Tories are as much the problem as the SNP and until we stop making this a party issue we'll get nowhere. 


So basically, the Tories are happy to let people die for a bit of political point scoring.
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1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

No politician is going to stop someone getting into drugs.  If folk want to do it, they will.

That's a lame observation.

As long as our figures are so much worse than those of comparable countries, we have to recognise that structural and environmental factors must play a part.

Politicians can impact on those factors via their decisions.  Governments can't legitimately abdicate all responsibility here.  In fairness, I don't think ours is particularly trying to.

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5 hours ago, Donathan said:

Doesn’t Scotland just have more of a heroin culture? 

 

5 hours ago, ICTChris said:

Regarding drug consumption rooms - would these have a big impact when people are dying taking street valium/benzos?  I understand that if you are an injecting drug user then you inject several times a day and you are at risk of overdosing then, so a consumption room means if you do OD then you've got help, you are injecting in a safer environment, clean needles etc.  But are street valium/beznos used in the same way?  I read somewhere that you guy loads of htem and pop them through the day, a safe consumption room isn't going to help with that?

There was a report, I think in the BBC one from earlier, from a rehab facility in Scotland where a third of the patients are Dutch, who have been sent there by their health insurance.  Surely something could be worked out about funding people to go into effective rehab programmes but then again, you clean someone up and send them back to the same environment what's the point?

The consumption rooms will help with things like directing people to support services or the clean needles etc but it does nothing to really get in the way of the benzo’s, etizalam etc, feel like hitting my head off a brick wall sometimes talking to politicians etc. Scotland is awash with the street valium that is selling for buttons and is made in factories across the country. Shut one down they move somewhere else and the courts are ineffective about doing anything about the people mass producing it. 
From a criminal justice perspective I think we need to decriminalise possession of certain drugs for personal use, heroin, benzos and similar drugs, im largely not in favour of decriminalising drugs like cocaine or ‘party drugs’ but appreciate others may be.
We still need to hammer drug suppliers, these are the organised crime gangs who spread misery and violence, we need to be harsher on them but at the same time offer diversionary measures for addicts or those caught up thinking they are the big man for the first time. Id like to see massive civil forfeiture expansion for suppliers, its time to hurt them the way they hurt communities. 
But none of that will mean anything until we remove the desolation, hopelessness that people feel, labelled a troublemaker at school or whatever and childhood trauma. Ive met very few drug addicts who havent encountered some kind of trauma. Make it easier to help these people, invest in education, training. If you give people hope you give them a chance in life. 
 

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6 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

 

The consumption rooms will help with things like directing people to support services or the clean needles etc but it does nothing to really get in the way of the benzo’s, etizalam etc, feel like hitting my head off a brick wall sometimes talking to politicians etc. Scotland is awash with the street valium that is selling for buttons and is made in factories across the country. Shut one down they move somewhere else and the courts are ineffective about doing anything about the people mass producing it. 
From a criminal justice perspective I think we need to decriminalise possession of certain drugs for personal use, heroin, benzos and similar drugs, im largely not in favour of decriminalising drugs like cocaine or ‘party drugs’ but appreciate others may be.
We still need to hammer drug suppliers, these are the organised crime gangs who spread misery and violence, we need to be harsher on them but at the same time offer diversionary measures for addicts or those caught up thinking they are the big man for the first time. Id like to see massive civil forfeiture expansion for suppliers, its time to hurt them the way they hurt communities. 
But none of that will mean anything until we remove the desolation, hopelessness that people feel, labelled a troublemaker at school or whatever and childhood trauma. Ive met very few drug addicts who havent encountered some kind of trauma. Make it easier to help these people, invest in education, training. If you give people hope you give them a chance in life. 
 

There was a parent at the kids last school who was given every support option going in terms support and investment. The drugs came back every time and sadly she was found dead in her (alleged) dealers flat. Three kids left behind.

Someone else I knows family member was found dead a couple of weeks ago, looks likely street valium was involved.

Decimalisation isn't a vote winner as we still have a very right wing Christian, vocal minority which means it won't happen, along with decriminalising prostitution. People view those doing both as scum.

There will also be the nimby objections to shooting rooms and such like which will also make it difficult.

The pressure put on NHS mental health service from drug and alcohol.dependancy is huge, to the point they struggle (in my area and experience} to provide effective services to anyone else.

Change needs to happen but it'll be at glacial pace as there is not the desire to help people perceived as 'scum'.

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