A churchman who says nearly a third of funerals he conducts are down to has pleaded with the First Minister to take action.
Rev Brian Casey, of Springburn Parish Church in Glasgow, has been saddened by the growing toll a huge rise in the abuse of cheap street drugs is having on his community.
He has sent a letter to Nicola Sturgeon, via local SNP MSP Bob Doris, that reflects the despair felt by many people in drugs blackspots.
Casey said he was inspired to write the letter by the Record’s campaign to seek ways to cut drug deaths. It culminated in our call for the decriminalisation of drug use within a more health-based approach.
He said: “I have read very closely what the Record has been publishing in regard to drug deaths and I agree with much of what is being said.
"Things are out of control and I believe the time for action is now.
“I have felt a duty to represent my own thoughts on this because Springburn has been hard hit by drugs problems over the years and it appears to me they are getting worse.”
Casey said he had been asked for pastoral support by many drug addicts who were at the point of desperation after being told it could be a 12-month wait before they could be seen by psychiatrists or put on long-term detox programmes.
He said: “Some of those who have come to me have subsequently passed away and I have conducted their funerals. We need earlier interventions for these people when they are clearly at huge risk.”
In his letter, Casey urges Doris to arrange a meeting with Sturgeon and public health minister Joe FitzPatrick to discuss “the lived experience I have every day of the week”.
Addressing the 1187 drug deaths in Scotland last year, his letter states: “Sadly, I have conducted around 500 funerals in the last five years – the old, young and babies.
"Around 30 per cent of deaths were drugs related in one way or another.”
He added: “Whilst heroin addicts are now living well into their sixties thanks to the methadone programme, we are losing young people who are taking really bad ‘street Valium’ and other drugs.
“We are told that the Scottish drug problem is out of control – something I have known for a while. So, how do we change this?
“Instead of criminalising addicts and drug users, we need to decriminalise drug possession and treat addiction as a medical issue.
“If someone feels demonised for taking drugs, they are less likely to seek help.”
Casey, who served as a policeman in Surrey before answering a vocation in 2008, said decriminalising drug users would free up police resources.
He backs the state prescribing heroin to the most needy cases, explaining in his letter that it “would save a lot of money in the logging and investigation of crime, allowing the police to concentrate on the suppliers rather than dealing with addicts committing housebreakings.”
Casey added: “I call upon my colleagues to show leadership on this issue.
“Just as Jesus cured the leper, the untouchable, the outcast; we can spiritually heal our communities and welcome those whom society has cast out.”
Doris forwarded the letter to Sturgeon.
He added: “It is vital that we listen to those with lived experience of the corrosive impact of drug abuse on our communities, those who support vulnerable drug users on a daily basis.”
FitzPatrick said last night: “We fully recognise the devastating impact of the deaths which Rev Casey is rightly highlighting.
“We are determined to take the necessary action that will save the lives of those who are most at risk as a result of their drug use, and we will be considering all proposals put forward as part of the work of the drug death taskforce.
“I will be responding to Mr Doris imminently and I welcome a meeting with him and Rev Casey to discuss their concerns.”
