SUMMIT
SCOTTISH SUMMIT A SUCCESS
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cotland has the worst rate of drug-related deaths per head of population in Europe, with
an alarming 1187 people losing their lives to drugs last year, so it was necessary that people with lived experience took centre stage at the recent Scottish Drug Deaths Conference.
The conference was held a day before the UK Drugs summit, primarily to ensure that some of Scotland’s recovery community – those with ‘lived experience’, who had been excluded from the United Kingdom government’s event, were able to participate.
‘What Scotland faces in terms of drug deaths,’ Public Health Minister, Joe FitzPatrick said in his address to delegates, ‘is nothing short of a public health emergency. The UK event, while welcome, simply does not have the voices of people with lived experience in Scotland at its heart. We’ve pressed the UK Government to extend their event to accommodate this, but this has not yet been forthcoming.
‘We’ve been clear that the views and insights of people with lived experience must help shape how we
tackle the high number of drug deaths in Scotland. As a result, we have worked with Glasgow City Council to host a Scottish summit on the eve of the UK event to try and better highlight the problem in Scotland.’
The conference, which was organised by the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council, provided drug users, their families and others working on the frontline to talk about how the issue has affected their lives and to offer suggestions as to how to tackle the problem of substance misuse.
Joe FitzPatrick was also able to provide some welcome news to delegates by informing them that additional funding of up to £20 million was being delivered to help reduce the harms and deaths caused by drug and alcohol use in Scotland.
The increased funding will help to deliver the recommendations of the Drug Deaths Taskforce, and provide investment for mental health support.
‘I remain convinced,’ he said, ‘that a public health approach to this emergency is the right way forward and the extra £20 million of funding
will go to a range of support services, including those helping the crossover between addiction and mental health.
‘The UK Government has made it clear at their summit that they are not willing to consider the bold, innovative approaches to this problem that I feel are needed. However, that doesn’t mean we will stop fighting for what we believe is right and this extra investment will help us in our efforts to save lives.’
In addition to presentations and Q&A sessions throughout the day, the conference also provided guests with the opportunity to see a demonstration model of a safer drug consumption facility.
Drug consumption facilities The subject of supervised drug consumption facilities have long been a contentious issue in the UK. The UK Government has rigidly refused to sanction a facility for Glasgow despite the fact that 150 such centres exist around the world.
Drug consumption rooms – or DCRs - are legally-sanctioned facilities where people can inject their own pre- obtained drugs, under medical supervision. Many also allow smoking
The mock-up of a supervised drug consumption facility provided by Transform Drug Policy Foundation
THE RECENT SCOTTISH DRUG DEATHS CONFERENCE ONCE AGAIN GAVE DELEGATES AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONSIDER THE IMPORTANT ISSUES CAUSED BY DRUG MISUSE IN THE REGION…
of drugs (including heroin and crack cocaine) – hence their name.
DCRs can be in permanent clinics, mobile ambulance style units or temporary structures and typically provide people, who use drugs, with items, such as: sterile injecting equipment, a hygienic space to use drugs under medical supervision that they have bought illicitly, primary medical care, and emergency care in the event of overdose.
The first professionally staffed service opened in the Netherlands in the early 1970s, but there are now more than 100 DCRs operating around the world, in, among others, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark, Australia and Canada.
The evidence for the effectiveness of DCRs is clear. Current research predicts that a similar facility in Canada will prevent between 1191- 1517 HIV infections over a ten-year period and will help to prevent overdose deaths.
In the area where Insite is located in Vancouver, overdose deaths fell by 35 per cent as against nine per cent in the rest of Vancouver after it opened. >
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