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‘ In an advanced nation such as Scotland we should not consider being over 35 part of an ageing cohort .’
NEEDLE PROVISION The uptake of syringes is not an indication that needles are provided to the target population , i . e . those most at risk of DRDs – poly users of opiates and benzodiazepines .
The existing data indicates that a large percentage of service providers distribute injecting equipment to non-problematic drug injectors and will include people injecting performance enhancing substances .
The Misuse of Drugs 1971 Act has been used by the Scottish Government as an excuse for not implementing a proposed safe injection facility ( SIF ). Evidence indicates that drug related deaths are more prevalent in urban communities characterised by deprivation . Therefore the proposed first SIF site , Glasgow city centre ,
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will have little impact on the target group ( people not frequenting Glasgow city centre to buy drugs ) most at risk of DRD . We believe that there should be multiple SIFs at the sites where the deaths are occurring .
AGEING COHORTS In an advanced nation such as Scotland we should not consider being over 35 part of an ageing cohort . In other areas of public health , such as heart disease , obesity , or diabetes , being 35 or over would not be posited as a major contributing factor to explain a rise in death .
For the Scottish Government to attribute increased DRDs to a legacy of Westminster predevolution economic policies is shameful . We cannot attribute the stark increases in DRDs to the economic policies of the UK government more than twenty years ago or to an ageing cohort . Thirty percent of drug related deaths occur among an age group who entered the labour market post-devolution in 1999 , when economic policies were devolved to the Scottish Parliament .
Drug-related deaths have increased by 470 per cent since 1996 . Around half of DRDs occur in the most deprived communities , while 4 per of deaths occur in the most affluent areas . Using the WHO burden of disease
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formula , the rates of DRDs within deprived communities are similar to the prevalence rates for heart disease and strokes . There would be a national outcry if the same number of deaths occurred in the population for any other healthrelated mortality factor .
FUNDING Examining the Scottish Government data on alcohol and drugs services funding indicates that there has been more than a 50 per cent cut in funding to services since 2007-08 . The 2019 report suggests that an annual funding of £ 73.8m per year is being made available to services . However , the actual figure is £ 53.8m per annum – the additional £ 20m accounts for £ 10m per year allocated over two years to the Drug Deaths Taskforce . There is little evidence that monies allocated to the Drug Deaths Taskforce have significantly impacted on reducing deaths in the communities where drug deaths are occurring .
Recommendations made in 2009 by Audit Scotland were ignored . If these recommendations were acknowledged by the Scottish Government and implemented , they may have improved outcomes and prevented unnecessary drug related deaths .
In short , cutting funding , centralising services , and ignoring accountability for making these
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cuts and changes to service provision , increased risk factors . We cannot change the policy and funding decisions that have been made . But we recommend that a meaningful and collaborative approach is taken by statutory and non-statutory agencies beyond addiction services to implement effective system changes recommended in the 2009 Audit Scotland report . No longer can services be designed to suit the needs of the organisations that commission , provide and evaluate their own services .
Specialists , non-specialists , and communities ( beyond recovery communities and families ) must be at the heart of this collaborative approach , adopting an inclusive , honest , and open dialogue . This dialogue has to begin by admitting that current specialist alcohol and drugs services no longer have the legitimacy to offer solutions . Only then can we prevent further increases in DRDs that impact greatest on the most marginalised communities in Scotland .
AUDIT Scotland ten years on : https :// doi . org / 10.1108 / DAT-05- 2020-0024
Barry Sheridan is independent consultant and researcher , affiliated to the University of the West of Scotland . Iain McPhee is senior lecturer alcohol and drug studies at the School of Education and Social Sciences , UWS .
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