For a nation that suffers more opiate deaths than any other in Europe, it’s only right that we invest in drugs that can reverse overdoses.
There’s no doubt Scotland’s situation would be even worse without the wide circulation of naloxone.
The availability of the treatment should be as widespread as defibrillators, particularly in our poorest communities.
But it has to be remembered that this drug is only effective against opiates and does nothing to counter the effects of the benzodiazepines that ravage our streets and feature on two-thirds of our overdose deaths.
The benzos, typically “blues” made up with bootleg etizolam, are rarely referred to in the Scottish media despite our towns being awash with them.
The Daily Record has asked why the Scottish Government has not funded media campaigns that warn against the mixing of benzos with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine or painkillers.
It is proven that drug addicts do not respond eagerly to “Just Say No” drug messages.
But surely TV and newspaper adverts that encourage safer drug use and the avoidance of polydrug overdoses would be worth a try.
Communities – the family and friends of those trapped in addiction – should all be made aware of the huge risk of death attached to mixing drugs.
And although we can’t realistically stop the flow of drugs, better public information on benzos may also lead to better intelligence coming back to police on the criminal gangs flooding our streets.
Right this wrong
The move to pardon, apologise and memorialise those killed as witches in Scotland is not just a piece of historical housekeeping.
The vast majority killed in the name of committing witchcraft were women and few people alive today would doubt that they were killed for any other reason than in an exercise of religious dominance and misogyny.
The act of pardoning the thousands killed under the Witchcraft Act, which remained in law in Scotland until 1736, is more than symbolic correction of discrimination against women.
Violent assault and hatred of women still exists today, as it did then, and as the petitioners for the act of pardon point out, if we don’t recognise and deal with our past we could go on to make the same mistakes in the future.
Pardoning those accused of witchcraft corrects a historic wrong but it also raises awareness to what happens to women every day in our modern society and hopefully spurs action on that.
