Report to the People
Community Solutions to Community Problems
Drugs do not only damage addicts.
If your car or house insurance goes up every year to cover the claims from habit feeding crimes; if you’re scared to set foot outside your font door at night for the fear of being mugged; if you watch your son or daughter slip away to a drug-ridden shadow – you are also a victim of drugs.
The fight against drugs is a community problem. And solving it is the responsibility of us all.
So it was good to see such a large and diverse turnout at last Monday’s community conference on drugs in Port Glasgow Town Hall. Representatives from local government and the Health Board were joined by members of a range of local organisations and community groups.
Also in attendance was Deputy Justice Minister, Iain Gray, who took the opportunity to confirm that almost £190,000 in extra drug treatment funding is to be made available to the Health Board. These funds, which come on top of the additional £645,593 they received in the Comprehensive Spending Review, will fund one-off initiatives or help to establish new drug treatment services.
However, while it is the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament to make sure the money is there, it is up to local communities to ensure that the funds hit the target. That is why the Drug Action Team – with their invaluable experience on the ground – will be able to bid in conjunction with the Health Board for funds from this pot to meet our specific, local needs.
Another good example of central government giving local communities the ability to tackle their problems came last Thursday.
It was announced that Drug Treatment and Testing Orders are to be made available to Greenock Sheriff Court. These orders, which are being piloted in several locations across Scotland, allow Sheriffs to place consenting drug addict offenders on specialist treatment programmes, with strict monitoring and penalties for contravention.
These orders won’t be available of course to drug dealers, who will still be dealt with ruthlessly. They will be used to get addicts off drugs and hence cut drug related crime. If we are to safeguard the future of our communities, we need a longer-term solution than the sticking plaster of a jail term.
The Scottish Parliament, then, can’t kick drugs out of a community. But it has a duty to give those fighting on the front line the tools to do the job.
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