Campaigners are set to stage a protest outside the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh on Thursday as official figures on the amount of drug deaths in the country are to be released.
The Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) charity will stage the protest as part of an ongoing campaign for better access to rehabilitation services for those exposed for addiction. The number of people dying from drugs in Scotland has increased over the last 15 years with the country having one of the highest number of fatalities in western Europe.
The Daily Record reports that Nicola Sturgeon promised action and her government has appointed a dedicated minister to oversee the response. Scottish Labour today warned that drug deaths are continuing to "devastate" families ahead of the new NRS report on drug-related deaths in 2021.
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Earlier in the week, Public Health Scotland published a damning report detailing how more than one in three people who died from a drug-related death in 2018 was a parent or guardian of a child. This resulted in 566 children losing a parent or guardian to drugs.
Claire Baker, Scottish Labour spokeswoman for drugs policy, said: "This heartbreaking report is an urgent reminder of the need to tackle Scotland’s drug death crisis and save lives. These tragic deaths are devastating families, with hundreds of children having lost a parent and many more people having lost a loved one. Every single drug-related death is preventable, and each one is a tragedy.
"The Scottish Government need to respond to the recommendations of the Scottish Drug Death Taskforce and deliver the meaningful change we desperately need, including investing in services and finally delivering the MAT standards."
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: "Scotland’s drugs-death epidemic is a national tragedy which ought to shame the SNP government. The number of fatalities has risen year on year on Nicola Sturgeon’s watch to last year’s appalling record high of 1,339.
"These figures mean Scotland has not just the worst death rate per head of population in Europe – but the worst by such an enormous margin that it’s hard to get your head around."
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