When I asked Gerry McCartney about the living wage last week, he said that we needed to remember the difference between the living wage and the minimum wage. Thinking about the Scottish Government’s mitigating of impacts by encouraging employers to implement the living wage, I wonder whether there is an opportunity to continue to ask for employment law or further benefits to be devolved, so that we have better fiscal control and can deliver public funding in the way that the Scottish Government chooses.

I have a quick supplementary question about a rent deposit guarantee scheme that I have heard about and which is being used to support people going into private tenancies. In social housing, you get your accommodation and that is it, but, in private accommodation, there has to be a rental deposit. Will the rent deposit guarantee scheme help in Scotland more widely? Right now, I have knowledge of it working only in Dumfries and Galloway.

That has been one of my concerns as well, as I learn more about the issue. As part of the eating out, eating well framework, there will be an option for out-of-home menus not to have calories on them, for people who have concerns.

The eating disorder charity Beat has concerns about the matter, and the Scottish Government is working closely with it. I am sure that that will inform the evidence as we move forward. Is Beat one of the charities that is involved in developing the process?

Okay. Thanks.

I have a long-standing interest in drug policy and the work to reduce the number of drug-related deaths across Scotland—not only as a registered nurse, but as a member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee during this session and as a member of the Health and Sport Committee in the previous session of Parliament. I also participated in the joint inquiry into drugs deaths in Scotland, which was carried out by the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster and led by Pete Wishart.

I will, in my short contribution, make three points. They will address the evidence-based action that the Scottish Government is taking, using the powers that are available to us to reduce drug-related harm; the importance of continued action to reduce drug-related stigma, which others have mentioned; and the response of the UK Government to the tri-committee inquiry.

First, since the national mission to reduce drugs deaths was announced in 2020, the Scottish Government has taken action to transform our approach to drug policy, within the constraints of the outdated Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We have changed our approach, and are moving away from one that focuses on criminalisation to one that puts first the health and medical needs of those who are impacted by drugs. In health, that has included roll-out of carrying naloxone to save the lives of people who experience a heroin overdose; development of better outreach services; increased provision of rehabilitation beds; and development of non-fatal-overdose pathways and MAT standards.

Another form of unintended overdose that occurs in Scotland is one in which benzodiazepines—whether illicit or prescribed—are taken and mixed with other substances, including alcohol. It is worth highlighting that those overdoses are a cause of death, especially in rural areas.

Naloxone works only for reversal of opioid overdoses. From my experience as a nurse, I know that there is a reversal agent for benzodiazepines called flumazenil. There can be side effects to use of flumazenil. Can the minister tell us whether any work is being done to pursue a naloxone-type reversal drug that would apply to use of benzos, especially in rural areas?

In education, the Government is bolstering teaching on drug and alcohol harms, thereby ensuring that children are educated at an early age about drug safety and the harms that addiction causes. By taking forward those and other measures, the Scottish Government is creating a new whole-system approach, and is implementing an integrated person-centred and medical, rather than punitive, approach to tackling drug harm.

I also welcome the work of project MATCH—matching alcoholism treatments to client heterogeneity—which takes a person-centred and client-centred approach to recovery. Harm reduction is also part of recovery, because we must remember that recovery includes relapse as well as support.

I turn specifically to stigma. By addressing stigma and the silence and alienation that it causes, we make it easier for people to seek help. Stigma is not only damaging to an individual’s mental health and sense of worth; it also discourages them from coming forward to seek the help that they need.

The media have an important role in addressing stigma. For example, in my South Scotland region, when I put out a press release welcoming drug funding and the progressive approach that is being taken in Scotland and the focus on stigma, a local newspaper used a stereotypical picture of a metal spoon with powder on it, next to a used syringe. The paper has agreed to consider changing the images that it uses in the future. I would welcome other print media also addressing addiction sensitively in order to help to tackle, and possibly eradicate, stigma.

It is welcome that the drug deaths task force has developed a strategy that identifies actions to help to reduce stigma. However, I often hear from constituents and others that an issue with stigma still exists among a minority of health, social care and allied health professional staff.

In a debate in January, the minister agreed to my request that the possibility of an e-learning module on drug stigma be explored—for example on the NHS learning system Turas—for our healthcare professionals, including pharmacists. I ask the minister, when she closes the debate, to give an update on whether that e-learning model to tackle stigma is progressing.

There is strong evidence from other countries that safer drug consumption facilities help to prevent fatal overdoses, and that they encourage people who use drugs to access longer-term help. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs both support use of drug consumption rooms and have said:

“The effectiveness of drug consumption facilities to reach and stay in contact with highly marginalised target populations has been widely documented.”

I will if I have time, Presiding Officer.

Will the member take an intervention?

I thank Russell Findlay for that intervention. I am not in the Government, so I cannot speak for it at this time, but I look forward to any plans that it will announce, because I believe that drug consumption rooms that help to support people and prevent overdoses should be introduced in Scotland.

I thank Bob Doris for that update on what is happening in greater Glasgow. My focus is on South Scotland, so I often do not know what is happening in other health boards directly, and we have not got to that yet in the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee.

In recent years, both the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee and the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee have recommended introduction of such facilities, but they are continually blocked by the UK Government, which refuses to accept the evidence and refuses to devolve control over drug policy to this Parliament.

My final point is that the UK Government’s whole approach to drug addiction is summed up well by minister Kit Malthouse, who said at the tri-committee that people who take drugs are “sad” and not bad. Drug users are so much more complicated than that. I believe that what he said was condescending and belittles people who are struggling through harmful use of drugs and alcohol. I am sure that he didnae mean to dehumanise them and to focus on criminality, but we need proper powers to take forward our own Scottish approach to tackling drug harm—one that is focused on evidence-based practice.

I repeat my call for the UK Government to devolve drugs policy to this Parliament.

Does the member not think that it is a bit disproportionate that the Scottish Government has given £20 million more for the Borderlands growth deal than the UK Government has invested? Is that levelling up or is that just losing out?