Blame game will not help addicts as vulnerable people continue to be put to the back of the treatment queue

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Nobody said the challenge facing Drugs Minister Angela Constance would be an easy one. She was stepping into an area where the systems in place were proven – through years of catastrophe – to be woefully inadequate.

The minister has always said the buck would stop with her.Today’s latest bad news on drugs comes from Public Health Scotland.Their report has shown the vital MAT Standards – supposedly Scotland’s biggest tool in saving lives – are in tatters, with successful delivery in just one Scottish local authority area.Constance’s response is, essentially, to say that it’s not her fault, that local authority bosses are not spending the millions given by the Scottish Government on the programmes that were promised.Her decision to resort to Ministerial Directions reflects her belief that highly paid executives have refused to spend money quickly or correctly.Whistleblowers, in turn, are already claiming that the promised cash is not in place for frontline services and that staffing shortages mean treatment can’t be offered.Responsibility for the latest shambolic failings must lie with both the minister and the trusted executives.Our latest damning report merely underlines how vulnerable people continue to be put to the back of the treatment queue and fobbed off.Service providers must be at the vanguard of a new attitude that respects the rights of each person to be given the treatment they deserve.And the Scottish Government must ensure the funding is there so every person asking for treatment can receive it, not at some time in the future but on the very day they need it.Over the next five years, Police Scotland will see a real-terms cut in its budget of £66million.The consequences of such a shortfall for the force are