Drugs minister pledges to treat every overdose with same priority as death of a child

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scotland's drugs minister has pledged to treat each overdose death with the same priority as the death of a child. Angela Constance made the promise as she faced accusations of slowness in the delivery of the National Mission to turn around our disgraceful drug deaths record.

The drugs policy minister was also slammed for failing to meet targets for crucial MAT standards, which underpin the strategies for treating addiction.

Constance, who was announcing new measures to increase accountability for drug policies and treatments, defended the Scottish Government’s record.

She said a major report in the summer will lay down, area by area, exactly how services have performed.Constance told parliament: “I am determined that we were every lesson from every death so that services are improved to better meet the needs of our citizens to the risk of dying.“When a child or a vulnerable adult dies, chief officers for public protection plays a key role in ensuring that we were vital lessons from these tragic events.“And I intend to do what is necessary so that the same chief officers take on a new accountability to ensure that lessons are learned and changes made from the reviews of all drug related deaths.“Therefore, I will be setting clear expectations to ensure consistency and how these reviews are carried out, as well as issuing guidance and training for all those involved.”Drug death statistics will also be improved with a £580,000 funding package.Labour’s health spokesperson Claire Baker said the implementation of MAT standards - which include rights for drug users, like same-day prescriptions - have no chance of being rolled out within a year, as the minister had promised.Baker said: “That gives me no satisfaction to see