West Scotland MSP Jamie Greene is backing fresh proposals aimed at tackling drug deaths in North Ayrshire which has the third highest rate of any local authority area in Scotland.
The region’s average drug deaths per 1000 population is the third highest in the country (0.20) and is only worse in Tayside (0.21) and Greater Glasgow and Clyde (0.27).
Across a decade, Ayrshire’s drug-related deaths have also increased by 145 per cent.
The Right to Recovery Bill, being brought forward by the Scottish Conservatives in Holyrood, would stop people
being refused residential rehabilitation treatment and enshrine in law that everyone has the right to the necessary addiction treatment they require.
The Bill has been developed alongside frontline experts and recovery organisations including FAVOR Scotland, who are also campaigning for a law guaranteeing access to alcohol or drug use treatment
services.
Mr Greene said: “North Ayrshire’s drug death crisis is nothing short of scandalous, having been ignored and side-lined by the Scottish Government for far too long.”
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