Chamber and committees

It was just to say that the Lord Advocate will not proceed with her prosecution statement unless she has satisfied herself about the process.

I will just briefly say in response to that that I would ask members of the joint committee to reach out to Police Scotland, put questions to it, and perhaps take its evidence, because I think that that will help you to form the bigger picture. Police Scotland has been supportive in understanding the need for such a facility. Assistant Chief Constable Ritchie was behind the proposal from the beginning. Police Scotland has come on a journey as regards playing a role on the issue. It was probably an oversight that none of its representatives was available at the community council meetings. I do not think that either of us can speak for Police Scotland, except to say that, since 2016, it has certainly supported our endeavours.

Thank you, convener. I thank all three committees for coming together to focus on this issue, which cuts across all your portfolios.

We are now at the midpoint of the national mission and we have seen significant progress in many areas. There has been a huge increase in naloxone distribution, improvement in our surveillance and early warning systems, progress on the implementation of medication assisted treatment standards and an increase in residential rehabilitation referrals and capacity.

As a Government, we have taken a truly whole-systems approach to tackling drug deaths and the underlying drivers. Our response to the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce set out bold actions, including in mental health and oral health, community pharmacies and developing a concessionary travel pilot. We recently published our second annual report, which I hope members have had a chance to read to see the depth and range of work that is being delivered.

That progress is not just due to our increased investment. It is very much due to a huge, concerted effort by people and organisations right across the country, and my respect and thanks go out to them. This truly is a national mission.

In 2022, we saw the first annual reduction in drug deaths since 2017. Although I welcome that record fall, I reaffirm my commitment to continuing the national mission and recognise that we still have a lot of work to do. I will never underestimate the scale of the challenge that we continue to face, which includes responding to new threats such as synthetic opioids and the ever-increasing use of stimulants. We will continue to implement evidence-based policies to reduce deaths and to improve the lives of people affected by substance use, and we are continuing with our commitment to put people with lived and living experience at the heart of everything that we do.

We recently had a debate in the chamber that was focused on drug law reform. That debate highlighted the limitations and the barriers that we still face. A key facet of drug law reform is the ability for Scotland to implement actions that we know will save lives. One example is safer drug consumption facilities, and I again welcome the position from the Lord Advocate and the confirmation from the United Kingdom Government that it will not seek to block or prevent the proposals in Glasgow.

Safer drug consumption facilities are important, but they are only one small part of a much wider picture when it comes to supporting people wherever they are. I look forward to the opportunity to provide wider updates through this evidence session.

Thank you very much for your question. I echo your recognition of the work that this joint committee does. I think that joint committees are invaluable, and that we should be doing more where we can.

On drug checking, a two-year study was funded by the Drug Deaths Taskforce to look at what Scotland’s drug-checking facilities look like and what we need. One of the things that the study told us was that we need them to be situated in some of our bigger cities. Aberdeen city is obviously one such area. The study also told us that, on top of Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen, there is a need for a national hub. Hopefully, that will be sited within the University of Dundee. We recognise that, although we need to have the drug-checking facilities in communities within easy access of individuals, we also need to have a national facility that will allow for robust checking of the results that are found at local level. Perhaps, at one point, we will be able to move to the model that exists in Wales—the Welsh Emerging Drugs and Identification of Novel Substances, or WEDINOS, service—through which people can post in drugs to be checked.

When it comes to timescales, we have had some clarification from the Home Office regarding some of the information that will need to be supplied and submitted by local authorities with their applications. One of the issues that we are trying to work through concerns the legalities surrounding the transportation of substances. I think that, once we get into a position where that is nailed down, the applications will go in as quickly as we need them to go in.

I gather that you are talking about safer consumption facilities.

Absolutely. I recognise everything that Alex Cole-Hamilton outlined. We invested in our rapid action drug alert system because we needed to know what was happening in real terms on the ground. The most recent rapid action drug alerts and response—RADAR—report talks about the fact that we are seeing synthetic stronger opioids making their presence felt in the UK and in Scotland. That gives me huge cause for concern.

Just this week, I was on a call with some of our international experts from Canada and the States to talk about what they would do differently now if they were able to do it again, and to ask about what we are doing in Scotland and what we could do that would help us to address what could potentially be coming down the line.

Thinking back to Russell Findlay’s question about serious and organised crime, it is far easier to get hold of and transport synthetics than it is to cultivate a crop that is dependent on so many other factors—never mind geopolitical ones. I am really worried about what we could potentially see, and that is why we need to ensure that we have the ability for drug testing and checking to be done.

People need to know what is in substances, and the Government also needs to know what is happening. The ASSIST—a surveillance study in illicit substance toxicity—project pilot, which is on-going at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital in Glasgow, does routine testing of individuals when they come in to find out what substances are at play. That information and surveillance will help us, but we need to ensure that we speak to the global leaders that are already dealing with the issue.

Shortly, I will convene a round table with other international experts on the issue, and the hope is that once that work progresses it can be opened up to allow other parliamentarians to be part of it, so that the whole Parliament can ensure that we understand what the threat is that is coming down the line and how quickly it could take hold.

We are giving people information about what a substance contains. We are seeing an increasingly toxic supply out there, and what an individual might think is Etizolam—street benzo—might come back showing that it contains some synthetic opioids.

I take your point about whether it actually contains the substance that the individual thought that it would, but it allows people to make decisions about whether they will continue to use a substance and how they will use it.

We have been rolling out our national naloxone programme for more than a decade, which is standing us in good stead already. We know that naloxone works on synthetic opioids. There may be a need for multiple doses; anyone giving naloxone will have to phone the emergency services at the same time, who must judge whether the person needs another dose of naloxone. The international evidence clearly shows that naloxone will still work, but that you need to have it in quantity in order to be able to react.

Drug checking should be rolled out at as low a threshold as possible. We need to work through what the pilots will look like, what they will tell us and how we will evaluate that, while operating within the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The ministers responsible for drug policy from all four nations will meet in a week and a half, and synthetics will be foremost in our conversation, because it is recognised across the whole of the UK that that is an increasingly important issue.

There are other things that we know could help. The safer consumption facilities will have professionals and supportive people on standby to respond to any crisis. Just this week, we have had the roll-out of safe supplies of naloxone to community pharmacies. We all recognise that those pharmacies are at the heart of our communities and are well placed to deliver that life-saving treatment, so it is a real boon to have that available everywhere.

That clearly demonstrates to me that if, in the UK as a whole, there was a move towards an array of different types of safer consumption facilities, or if we were given the ability, with devolved powers, to make such a move, that would allow us to be more flexible and agile in responding at the same time, and to have more third sector partners involved in providing and delivering those services. Although we know that the facility will save lives when we get the pilot up and running, that situation demonstrates some of the constraints that we are operating under.

On your first point, the resourcing of any other safer consumption project would be an on-going process between my officials and officials at Edinburgh council. That is not something that I can foresee, but I take your point about how pressed the budgets are.