Scotland's drugs minister has personally intervened to speed up rehab for a desperate "lifetime" methadone patient the Record told of his plight.
Angela Constance contacted long term methadone patient Francis McGowan, 52, after we revealed how he has waited more than 20 years for specialist help.
His life has been and endless loop of addiction, crime and prison after he was abused by Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton when he was just nine years old.
Despite a major cash injection by the Scottish Government, drug services in many areas have failed to show urgency in addressing the national drug deaths crisis.
Francis’s case worker told him there’s “no cash for rehab” but £5m of £13.5m given to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) was designated for residential rehabilitation. North Lanarkshire received £856,300.
Francis told the Record that he was invited by Constance to give details of his torrid struggle.
He said: “It’s odd because normally I’d be lucky to get a ten minute chat with a drug worker every few months but after the Record story everybody seems to want to help me.
“I’ve been offered rehab by a private company and Angela Constance personally asked me for more details, so I gave her a summary of my life story.
“To be honest I feel grateful that she took the time to get in touch but I guess it wouldn’t have happened if the Record didn’t publish my story.
“It’s all happening so fast but I’m ready to get myself into rehab tomorrow if a place is found.”
Francis said he had also been contacted by other methadone patients in North Lanarkshire, who had received “monthly calls” out of the blue from drug workers.
He said: “We’ve been having a laugh about that because we never had any monthly call before, now they’re all suddenly keyed-up.
“If a rocket has been set under ADP staff then that’s got to be good because there’s people dying every day.”
Annemarie Ward, of the FAVOR charity, said: “We have to ask why Francis is not in rehab already, given he surely meets all the criteria and cash is meant to be available.
“He should be given a place immediately if Scotland is serious about turning our record deaths around.”
Ward said there is evidence to prove how severe childhood trauma is linked to addiction and “self soothing destructively”.
She added: “Of course not everyone who is abused as a child goes on to become addicted.
“The research tells us that the majority of addicted people have endured severe and enduring trauma as children.
“The more we continue to rationalise, justify and defend the current failing systems and the longer we continue to neglect and ignore these pleas for real help the more damaging it is to all of Scottish society.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced last December an extra £250m for drug programmes, over five years. There will be £100m for rehab.
Drugs activist Peter Krykant said Francis’s case shows how services need to dramatically speed up.
He said: “Although Scottish Government has seemingly allocated a large sum of money to support and expand access, it’s clearly not filtering down to the frontline.
“In many areas across the country, it can take weeks if not months just for an initial assessment after someone first asks for help, all this is truly unacceptable and must change if we are to deal with the drug death crisis.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have huge sympathy with people who, like Francis, have struggled with a life of addiction and the Minister for Drugs Policy has offered to meet him.
“Getting people into the treatment and recovery that is right for them at the right time is at the core of our national mission to save and improve lives.
“Our national mission in tackling the drug deaths emergency includes removing barriers to support, with an additional £250m allocated over the next five years to improve and increase access to services for people affected by drug addiction, with £100 million on residential rehabilitation to increase capacity and improve access to services for the most vulnerable.
“We have increased funding to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to improve access to residential rehab and are clear that residential rehabilitation should be part of the full range of drug prevention and treatment services available in all local authority areas.
“We have also announced £4m to fund Medication Assisted Treatment standards, which will mean people who use drugs receive help the day they ask for it, regardless of where they live.”
Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “There is a total lack of urgency to deliver rehab places in too many areas of Scotland. We’re bringing forward a Right to Recovery Bill to guarantee that everyone who needs rehab can get it.
"Clearly, that isn’t happening right now, despite the government receiving warning after warning that people were being made to jump through hoops to get into treatment.”
Scotland had 1,339 drug deaths in 2020, the worst rate in Europe by miles and almost four times as bad as the rest of the UK.
The Daily Record supports the decriminalisation of drug use, while staying tough on drug gangs that wreck our communities.
