Scots drug summit to be held day before UK event

There are said to be about 60,000 problem drug users in Scotland, with many of those who have died taken a cocktail of heroin and pills

Getty Images syringe and pills — There are said to be about 60,000 problem drug users in Scotland, with many of those who have died taken a cocktail of heroin and pills

The Scottish government is to hold a drugs summit in Glasgow the day before a UK government conference on the same issue in the same venue.

The UK government confirmed last month it would be holding an summit at the Scottish Events Campus on 27 February aimed at tackling problem drug use.

Plans for a separate conference at the campus on 26 February were announced by the Scottish government on Thursday.

It said the event would "better highlight the problem in Scotland".

The Scottish Liberal Democrats accused both governments of being more interested in political point scoring than they are in making progress on drugs deaths.

Figures released last year showed that Scotland's drug death rate was nearly three times that of the UK as a whole, and is higher than that reported for any other EU country.

The 1,187 drug deaths recorded in 2018 was the most since records began in 1996, and was higher than the 1,136 alcohol-specific deaths in the same year.

Police recorded 388 drug deaths in Scotland in the first six months of 2019 and a further 296 deaths are being investigated as drug-related, according to figures seen by the BBC.

The Scottish government has been calling for the introduction of consumption rooms where addicts can safely inject, and for control over drugs policy to be devolved from Westminster to Holyrood - but the proposals have so far been rejected by the UK government.

Denmark is among the countries to have introduced fix rooms but the UK government has rejected the idea

A man sat in the fix room — Denmark is among the countries to have introduced fix rooms but the UK government has rejected the idea

Instead, it said it would be holding a major summit that would bring together health professionals, politicians and senior police officers from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland to examine ways of reducing the number of drug deaths across the UK.

At the time, the Scottish government claimed that the summit had been set up without any consultation - and it has now announced its own event which will be co-hosted by Glasgow City Council.

It said the discussions would "help inform Scottish input" to the UK Drugs Summit the next day, with public health minister Joe Fitzpatrick saying the agenda would be led by people with "lived experience" of drug abuse.

Mr Fitzpatrick added: "What Scotland faces in terms of drug deaths is nothing short of a public health emergency.

"The UK event, while welcome, simply does not have the voices of people with lived experience in Scotland at its heart. We've pressed the UK government to extend their event to accommodate this, but this has not yet been forthcoming."

The Scottish conference will also include training in the use of Naloxone, which reverses the effect of an opioid overdose, and a demonstration model of a drug consumption facility.

Kit Malthouse, the UK government's minister for crime and policing, will chair the UK-wide summit the following day.

When the UK event was first announced, Mr Malthouse said: "People are dying from drugs every day across the UK and this summit will bring us together to tackle the issue of drug misuse.

"We must have firm enforcement action and do all we can on prevention, recovery and treatment, too."

Scottish Conservative health spokeswoman Annie Wells has previously said she is "open" to the idea of consumption rooms.

Responding to the Scottish government announcement, she said any opportunity to discuss how to tackle Scotland's drug crisis was welcome.

But she called on the Scottish government to "reaffirm its support for the UK-wide summit taking place the day after" because "that's the event experts, responsible agencies and cross-party politicians are focusing on."

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said: "The Scottish and UK governments ought to be working together to solve this crisis, not engaging in petty point scoring by holding separate conferences on the same issue in the same city only a day apart.

"Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson need to put their squabbles aside and work together to save lives."