Question reference: S6W-26222
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 18 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 27 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding the potential impact in Scotland of the UK Government's plans to develop an early warning system to detect synthetic opioids and emerging drugs, which will reportedly track drug presence in real-time through wastewater testing and overdose reports, use and provide data to the UN commission’s own early warning system, and aim to prevent a fentanyl crisis such as that experienced in the USA.
Answer
Scottish Government officials have been meeting regularly with the UK Government and the other devolved nations to discuss and share plans around the potential impact of synthetic opioids. These meetings are now occurring on a monthly basis. This issue has also been raised on a number of occasions at a Ministerial level, including at the recent British Irish Council Ministerial meeting in January and the UK Drugs Ministerial meeting which took place in November.
The early warning system using wastewater analysis and overdose reports will provide vital information in terms of changes in the drug supply and in identifying changes in use in different locations. Scottish Water are involved with this work and we will get the data on a quarterly basis and this will feed into our surveillance plans.
It is vital that we are able to share surveillance information, intelligence and details on changes in drug trends between the different administrations, particularly as the illegal drug supply is not impacted by borders.