MSPs back 'heroin on NHS' call

Published on Wednesday 27 June 2007 01:21

MSPs yesterday backed calls from one of Scotland's leading police officers to fight the country's drug problem by offering addicts heroin on prescription.

John Vine, Tayside Police chief constable, is the most senior police officer in Scotland to call for hard drugs to be prescribed.

Yesterday, Bill Wilson, the SNP MSP, lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for the method to be investigated.

He even suggested purchasing Afghanistan's opium crop in order to stabilise security in the country and control the supply of heroin to Scotland.

However, the Executive said there were no plans to consider prescribing heroin. Instead, more resources will be targeted towards getting people off drugs.

As part of this, the community safety minister, Fergus Ewing, launched the country's first on-line directory of treatment options available to addicts.

Meanwhile, latest statistics showed drug addicts in Scotland are waiting up to two years for treatment on the NHS. The Executive figures showed that more than two-thirds of the 5,331 people referred for drug treatment in the first quarter of this year received an appointment within two weeks.

Of the others, over a quarter wait more than a year before they are even assessed. Nearly 40 per cent wait over a year for actual treatment to begin.

Annabel Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said it was a "national scandal" more was not being done to cut waiting times.