This week’s midweek Through A Scottish Prism is an Interview with Annmarie Ward. She is the CEO of FAVOR-UK, the leading addiction recovery advocacy charity in the UK. She has dedicated the past 12 years to advancing the organisation’s vision and mission, supporting individuals and communities affected by addiction.

Drugs are a terrible problem throughout the world no more so than in Scotland. Addiction wrecks lives but not just that of the addicts themselves also their families and communities suffer great harm by the scourge of addiction.

Scotland’s drug-induced death rate is the highest in Europe based on the latest available data. At 27.7 per 100,000, it is almost three times higher than the next highest country, Ireland.

It is not a subject that wins or loses elections so it tends to be swept under the carpet by our politicians and the general public. The headlines are not great, so the politicians do not want much association round this contentious problem.They prefer being associated with matters and policies that will get positive headlines and endear them to their voters.Put simply, drug deaths does not equate to votes!

It possibly explains why it is now five years since Annmarie first presented her Right To Recovery Bill at Holyrood and it is still a long way off from being enacted. She tells us the backstory on all of this. The struggles to get buy in, and progress or lack of from the Holyrood Parliament.

As more and more Scots turn to street drugs it seems our parliamentarians prefer keeping their heads in the sand than face up to a very real and very tragic health crisis in our midst.

We also discuss matters like legalising all drugs as has happened in Portugal, Vanvouver BC and San Fransisco. The problems in the Calton with the Thistle Drug Consumption Room. We also discuss the NGO/Quango drug industry that has grown up around addiction.It is used as a defence mechanism by the politicians.It is their way of saying look “we are doing something!” when in fact they are just pushing the problem further sbd further down the road.Annmarie tells us of the flaws in all of this and points the way forward.