Scottish Government has announced that Christina McKelvie has been appointed Minister for Drugs and Alcohol policy, following the resignation of Elena Whitham MSP as Drug and Alcohol Minister.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society would like to put on record our thanks to Ms Whitham for working with us during her time as Drug and Alcohol Minister, and particularly for her efforts to bring in a new national service to provide emergency access to supplies of naloxone. RPS Scotland has consistently called for naloxone to be available from every community pharmacy for supply to people who use drugs, family, healthcare professionals, and for it to be available in all clinical settings for use in emergencies. This new service across the community pharmacy network is a huge step forward in achieving this, and is recommendation number one from our policy on Pharmacy’s role in reducing harm and preventing drug deaths.
We know there is so much more to do to reduce harm and prevent drug deaths across Scotland and look forward to working with Ms McKelvie to take many of our policies on this forward. We will be writing to Ms McKelvie to secure an introductory meeting with her as soon as possible.
Commenting on the news, Laura Wilson, Director of RPS Scotland, said:
“Pharmacy teams have a huge role to play in reducing harm and preventing drugs deaths across Scotland.
We’re pleased with some of the policy steps which have been taken so far, most notably the national naloxone service brought in last year, which is extremely welcome.
"There is still so much to do, and we look forward to working with Ms McKelvie, and Scottish Government more widely, to implement additional policies to reduce harm and prevent drug deaths.”