I welcome the minister’s intervention, but it is clear that nothing has been done for six to seven years. I appreciate the current Lord Advocate’s position, but it is the same Scottish Government and the same policy for a safe consumption room, and that policy has simply not been delivered before, so people feel let down.

The law on drugs is exactly the same in England as it is in Scotland—every word and every comma is identical—yet here in Scotland drug deaths are three times higher, so it really is not the law that is the issue. Simplistic arguments about where power rests are simply not credible. We need action from Government, not more distraction in the form of fights with Westminster.

I know that the SNP does not like to hear it, but the powers to end Scotland’s drugs crisis lie in St Andrew’s house. Those include power over our entire health system, including drug treatment services, mental health services, social care, policing and prisons, to name a few.

Members should not just take my word for it. The former head of the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce, Professor Catriona Matheson, has said that

“the Scottish Government needs to focus on what we can do now in Scotland without trying to divert attention to Westminster and the Misuse of Drugs Act.”

David Liddell, former chief executive officer of the Scottish Drugs Forum, told the Scottish Affairs Committee:

“we certainly do have a frustration that the Misuse of Drugs Act is used as a means for delaying responses.”

Finally, anti-poverty campaigner Darren McGarvey has said that we should add

“safe drug consumption rooms to the list of things that were doable in Scotland ages ago.”

Although I welcome the announcement, we must be frank and say that it is clear evidence of how Governments play politics with people’s lives. Surely the minister recognises that those experts need to be listened to. How does she respond to Audit Scotland, which, in its “Drug and Alcohol Services: An update” in 2022, warned of

“a lack of drive and leadership by the Scottish Government”?

I repeat that the powers to end Scotland’s drugs crisis lie in St Andrew’s house.

We know that we are dealing with a complex and wicked problem. We need to have a clear understanding of the underlying causes of addiction so that we can begin to tackle them at their root; we need action to increase the availability and range of support services and treatment; and we need to recognise that harm reduction, treatment and rehabilitation go hand in hand. The Government is keen to point to the increased amount that it has spent on drugs and alcohol from 2019 onwards. However, it has failed to mention the period before that, when it cut the budget by £46 million. It is astonishing that the Government now wants us to congratulate it simply for restoring its cuts.

This week, I received an email from a general practitioner from the Pollokshaws medical centre in Glasgow, which is just next door to the First Minister’s constituency. The GP described the underfunding of primary care and the decreasing budget for treating people with alcohol and drug addictions. The drug misuse national enhanced service is the specific funding stream. It has not grown at all—not at all—in the past 16 years since the SNP came to power. At the same time, we have had a combined rate of inflation of well over 80 per cent, so it has, in effect, suffered a real-terms decrease.

The GP made the point that many addiction teams are attempting to move more stable users to primary care so that they can look after the high-risk cases. However, due to that lack of funding, most general practices are not able to provide the help that is required. The GP notes that if funding is, in effect, halved, care will suffer. He asks whether it is acceptable for that situation to continue. I put that question to the Government. He goes on to say:

“I really think, for the sake of many vulnerable patients and their families whose lives are blighted by drugs misuse, that this would be a positive step towards lowering suffering and deaths.”

The issue is not just primary care services. Other services such as Turning Point in Glasgow are closing their doors to women with addictions because their budgets have been slashed. Local addiction projects in my area have had flat-cash settlements for the past decade, which are, in effect, real-terms cuts in their budgets.

Against that backdrop, I understand that more than £2 million has been identified for the safe consumption room pilot. I ask the minister to say in her closing remarks whether that will be additional funding or whether cuts are being made to treatment services to allow that to happen. Rehabilitation beds were cut by the Government. Scottish Labour supports Douglas Ross’s proposal for a bill that would give people a right to rehab. We recognise that that would not, in and of itself, be a magic bullet, but it is an important provision that would help in the fight to tackle drug misuse, so I hope that the Government will support it.