The solution is simple but diffficult to deliver: Give people a purpose

The former head of Scotland’s elite crime fighting agency who went on to become an MSP said frustration at a lack of joined-up action to tackle the drugs crisis helped drive him from politics.

Graeme Pearson added the country’s strategy over the past 15 years of attempting to manage drugs use, including the controversial methadone programme, had been a proven failure and moves were needed instead to encourage reduction and eventual abstinence.

He said the only way to achieve this was providing people with an alternative, in the form of a purpose in life, adding jobs were the key.

Mr Pearson, former director of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), who went on to serve as Labour MSP for the South of Scotland from 2011 to 2016, said: “I left as director general of the SCDEA as the frustration at seeing so little achieved, with so much effort being put in by so many, was driving me to distraction.

“I decided to try to go to the Parliament to see if I could help bring change via that forum but, if anything, it was even worse. As I stood up in 2011, the Government ministers and their supporters noisily talked me down. They said they had a strategy, it was going well, they had the methadone programme and so on. After five years, I had enough of that too. There is a disconnect between the people doing the work and those directing.

“Another major problem in Scotland is that, as we have a system of government which is so strong and holds all the purse strings, the agencies and groups who depend on it for funding are loathe to call out its failures, fearing they will lose budgets or grants.

“Over the past 15 years, efforts have largely been about maintaining abuse of drugs, not reducing. We should make every attempt we can to try to get people off drugs. Anyone can be encouraged to reduce their methadone dose, in the way someone might cut down the sugar in their tea.

“The argument when the methadone programme was introduced was that it would stabilise users and allow services to intervene. The reality is that methadone is just breakfast before users go out and get more drugs. It’s like saying to an alcoholic, we’ll give you a couple of pints of beer in the morning and that’ll keep you away from drink for the rest of the day. Logic tells you that’s not going to happen.

“The solution, while difficult to deliver, is simple: give people a purpose in life. For most, this means a job which will help to get them out of poverty and occupy their time productively. Otherwise, if you are sitting in a housing scheme, looking out the window at the bouncing rain, and someone offers you some pills which will do you in for the next couple of days, then why not?

“Decriminalisation is just a diversion. Alcohol is legal and we are a world leader in problems with that too, so drugs legalisation isn’t going to change a lot and could actually make things a whole lot worse.

“We need people compos mentis and encouraged to lead some form of productive life and the best way to achieve this is via the chance to get a job. We must not forget the importance of tackling supply.”