Tom Wood: Years before we'll see any improvement

Published on Tuesday 17 August 2010 18:17

The rethink on drug treatment in Scotland is happening right now under the Scottish Government's "Road to Recovery" policy launched about 18 months ago.

There are no quick fixes to this problem and any move that has to be made, has to be made in a long slow turn. These drug deaths are a legacy of years, sometimes decades of substance misuse. We tend to picture drug deaths as the tragic, one-tablet case such as Leah Betts, but these are not typical.

Typically, the people who die under what are categorised as drug deaths have been using a cocktail of drugs and substances, both legal and illegal, including alcohol. Often they die of complications arising from medical conditions which are associated with their lifestyle. They do not die from what they did the day before, they die because of the way they have lived their lives for 20 years, sometimes longer.

There is absolutely no question about the efficacy of methadone in trying to get people to reduce the chaos of needle use. But it was never meant to be anything other than a first step on the ladder. The trouble is, for too long we have seen methadone as not the first step on the ladder, but the whole ladder. The Road to Recovery strategy of the Scottish Government changed that, but don't expect the benefits to happen overnight, because we are dealing with a legacy issue that is beginning to show itself in the emergence of chronic problems among women who have previously been far behind men in drug deaths.

In analysing drug-related fatalities, you need to look at a five-year average. At the moment in Scotland, we are at the top of the curve. It will be a number of years before we start to see the benefits of new thinking and new investment in drug treatment and recovery.

• Tom Wood is ex-chairman of the Alcohol and Drug Action team in Edinburgh, and head of the Association of Scottish Alcohol and Drug Action Teams.