Drug treatment services praised

First Minister Alex Salmond has congratulated drug treatment services in Aberdeen for a dramatic improvement in waiting times for addicts.

MSPs heard that in June this year there were 117 people waiting more than 26 weeks for an assessment, which was still high, but down compared to the 622 in 2007.

“We welcome this progress, but there is still some way to go in Aberdeen and some parts of Scotland if we are to drive down waiting times and tackle drug abuse effectively,” Mr Salmond said.

He congratulated Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing for securing a cross-party consensus on the government’s first drug strategy which emphasises recovery instead of putting addicts on heroin substitute methadone. On Tuesday, two reports outlining the depth of the problem of illicit drug use were published by the Scottish Government.

Mr Salmond said it was “not particularly helpful” that Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker claimed the reports were an indication of the government’s lack of response given they were for 2006, the year before the SNP came to power. He said: “That was one of the most foolish pieces of politicking on this issue that I have ever seen.”

Mr Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, said given the 4% increase in drug offences last year and the 3% increase in drug misusers in 2008, should MSPs not have another opportunity to debate the government’s drugs strategy. “The most recent statistics show that the Scottish Government is not succeeding,” he said.

Mr Salmond said he wanted to know why, when a report was published on the drugs problem, Mr Baker said it indicated the government’s failure when it referred to the failure of the previous Labour government. He added: “The question is did Richard Baker realise the date of the report or does he just do rent-a-quote on every issue?”