by Tory minister Penny Mordaunt is furious after he mocked a scheme aimed at slowing Scotland’s drug deaths crisis to score “cheap points” in a row with the SNP.
“There is a cost to withdrawing from proven health interventions”, experts interviewed warned The Independent Mr Mordaunt accused Ms Mordaunt of “putting down on a group of people who are the most marginalized and worst in society” – and urged ministers to prioritize dealing with England’s own overdose crisis.
Scotland’s overdose rate is the highest in Europe, with 1,051 drug-related deaths last year despite a record drop in deaths, amid a national push to tackle the crisis. South of the border, drug-related deaths have also tripled in less than a decade to reach an all-time high of 4,859 in 2021.
Despite long-standing opposition from the UK government, support from Scotland’s most senior law officer in September has cleared the way for a planned drug consumption room in Glasgow – a space where people can take drugs in the presence of professionals medicine to prevent overdoses. they happen.
But Miss Mordaunt sought to use the scheme as a target on Thursday against the SNP’s “terrible legacy” for Scotland’s children, criticizing a “ruined education system, widening attainment gap, fewer teachers, maths scores at decrease in all PISA. survey, low level science and falling literacy rates”.
“But, of course, they will have somewhere safe and warm to take heroin,” the Cabinet Minister told Deputies.
The comments have caused concern both north and south of the border among experts and politicians, including those who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses.
Gavin Heron, who lost his 25-year-old brother Evan to a heroin overdose in November 2021, said: “He died alone in his home, a week after moving in from a heroin overdose. Penny Mordaunt used people like my brother to score cheap points today but we know safe consumption rooms work.”
Recalling personally witnessing an overdose reversal at a facility in Lisbon, Mr Heron said: “I’ve seen the criticism that ‘they only delay death’ or they don’t. [they] they are ‘palliative care’. To put it this way – who are you to say that someone should die from using drugs? Say that to liver transplant recipients – would you starve them to death and refuse the gift of life?
“I don’t know if a safe consumption room would have saved my brother – but we need different types of help for different people and different circumstances. People are rude and disrespectful – do you want to be part of a society that so brutally ignores you and treats your needs and life as unnecessary?
“We will do everything we can to resolve this crisis. We owe it to people like my brother and everyone who has died in this country because of drugs.”
Responding to the former Tory leadership hopeful, SNP MP Stewart McDonald wrote on Twitter/X: “Shame on you, Penny Mordaunt.
“My brother died of a drug overdose at his home. If he had access to a health care facility like a safe consumption room – somewhere ‘safe and warm’ as you put it – to manage his addiction he could still be alive today.”
Speaking to The National newspaper – which criticized the “disgraceful” remarks on its front page – Scottish Drug Forum chief executive Kirsten Horsburgh warned that “the basis of a harm reduction approach is protecting lives”.
“This is an unhelpful perspective and benefits from an evidence-based service that engages with and supports people who are particularly at risk of drug-related harm,” said Mr Horsburgh.
Peter Krykant, who risked a criminal conviction by setting up a mobile overdose prevention center in an ambulance in Glasgow three years ago in defiance of UK laws, described Ms Mordaunt’s remarks as “cold-hearted”.
“Scotland’s drug death rates are among the highest in Europe, we have implemented something proven around the world to reduce deaths and injuries but the contempt from Ms Mordaunt is brutal,” said Mr Krykant.
Experts also highlighted the fact that fatal overdoses are a public health crisis across the UK – not just in Scotland – and accused the UK government of creating a “hostile environment” for people who use drugs.
“Mordaunt’s comment was cheap, describing a group of people who are the most marginalized and worst in society,” said Niamh Eastwood, chief executive of the charity Release. The Independent.
“She talks about the SNP but almost 11,000 people have died heroin-related in England alone since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. Every year since 2011 drug-related deaths have broken across the four nations.
“We currently have an increasingly toxic drug supply leading to an increase in overdose deaths. Mordaunt’s priority should be to focus on the crisis happening in England and elsewhere in the UK and not glib comments about the Scottish Government trying to provide ‘safe and warm’ spaces.
“These spaces can save lives, but it is clear that the UK government wants to continue to create an unsafe and hostile environment for people who use drugs.”
The series comes after cross-party MPs on the home affairs committee backed the government to back a pilot of drug consumption rooms.
“Overdose Prevention Centers have been proven around the world to reduce drug-related harm, as well as drug-related deaths,” said Megan Jones, director at the charity Cranstoun The Independent – and urged the ministers to support the committee’s report.
“At a time when we are facing a public health crisis across the UK with people dying from overdoses, we would urge the government to look at the evidence around these facilities.”
