By Hilary Duncanson, Scottish Press Association

MSPs today launched a Bill demanding the setting up of drug treatment facilities for addicts in local communities.
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) unveiled the proposals at the Scottish Parliament in a bid to tackle the “emergency” of Scotland’s drug abuse problem.
Rosemary Byrne, SSP list MSP for the South of Scotland, said her Bill set out a benchmark for standards of provision for treating drug users.
Ms Byrne, who was today accompanied by former drug users and charity workers, said: “This Bill is about our experiences in the community.
“We want to transfer those experiences into a national strategy and we want to get away from stigmatising people as ‘junkies’.”
The Bill proposes the setting up of facilities in local communities where registered addicts may receive treatment and support.
These measures include counselling, housing support, rehabilitation and so-called “maintenance prescribing” – the prescribing of drugs such as methadone to wean users off their habit.
Such provisions, which would ideally operate at grassroots level in the communities with greatest need, would take addicts away from crime and the clutches of drug dealers, the SSP claimed.
The community drug treatment programmes would be funded by savings made through the criminal justice system, the Socialists added.
For every £1 spent on treatment, £3 would be saved by not having to house addicts in prisons or in care, the SSP said.
The Bill is a bid to tackle what the SSP cite as gaping holes in the provision of treatment for Scotland’s 50,000 drug addicts.
Kevin Williamson, the SSP’s drug spokesman, said Scotland was in an “emergency situation”.
He said: “One person dies every day from drugs in Scotland. I think this is the biggest challenge the SSP has ever faced.”
The Bill will now go out for extensive nationwide consultation with drugs workers, health workers and members of the voluntary sector.
Fifteen MSPs, including members of the Green Party and Independent MSPs Dennis Canavan, Dr Jean Turner and Margo MacDonald, have signed up to the Bill to date.