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Road to Recovery
03/12/2009
A panel of experts and people with personal experience of recovery are among members of the new Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission which held its first meeting today.
The Commission was chaired by Dr Brian Kidd, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Addiction Psychiatry at Dundee University, and includes representatives from the medical profession, prisons, families, voluntary sector, law enforcement and local government.
Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing established the Commission with the aim of ensuring a more effective and sustainable implementation of Scotland's National Drugs strategy. Its role is to assess independently the Scottish Government's progress in delivering the strategy.
Mr Ewing said:
"The Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission will help the Scottish Government deliver a drugs policy that is fit for the 21st century for all the people of Scotland.
"Our new drugs strategy, The Road to Recovery, was approved unanimously by the Scottish Parliament and has been welcomed widely across Scotland.
"The Commission will replace Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse (SACDM). I would like to thank the members of SACDM for their advice and expertise which was pivotal in creating our new national drugs strategy.
"I feel strongly that leading experts should and will have an even more important role to play as advisors in implementing and where necessary criticising delivery of the strategy.
"I have sought to find a wide range of leading experts to build on this consensus and make sure the Scottish Government are held to account to deliver our new strategy.
"I'd like to thank these experts for giving their time and commitment in making sure that Scotland will become safer and stronger."
Dr Kidd said:
"The Road to Recovery raises the bar for Scotland regarding what we aim to achieve when tackling the impact of substance use problems on our communities. The key to achieving the aspirations it contains is the new mechanisms the Scottish Government has created to improve delivery.
"The DSDC is a new approach - creating a body which sits independent of Government. It has the remit to ask the difficult questions and a membership to fully explore all the options to improve our performance."
Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission.
- Dr Brian Kidd - Chair - Clinical Senior Lecturer in Addiction Psychiatry, Dundee University
- Professor John Davies - Director - Centre for Applied Social Psychology, Strathclyde University
- Ms Sian Fiddimore - Chief Executive - Transition
- Mr Andrew Horne - Director of Operations Scotland - Addaction
- Mr Roger Howard - Chief Executive - UK Drugs Policy Commission
- Dr Charles Lind - Consultant psychiatrist - NHS Ayrshire & Arran
- Councillor Ronnie McColl - COSLA Spokesperson for Health and Wellbeing
- Councillor Harry McGuigan - COSLA Spokesperson for Health and Wellbeing
- Ms Teresa Medhurst - Governor - HMP and YOI Cornton Vale Prison
- Mr Gordon Meldrum - Director General - Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency
- Mr Robert Peat - Director of Social Work and Health, Angus Council
- Dr Kennedy Roberts - Formerly Senior Medical Officer, Glasgow Addiction Services
- Ms Eleanor Robertson - Chair - Scottish Network for Families Affected by Drugs
- Dr Roy Robertson - Honorary Clinical Reader - Department of Community Health Sciences, Edinburgh University and Muirhouse Medical Group
- Mr Colin Sloey - Chair - Lanarkshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership
- Dr Cameron Stark - Consultant in Public Health Medicine
- Ms Carole Hunter - Pharmacy Lead - Glasgow Addiction Services
- Two volunteers with experience of recovery are invited, as members, to each meeting on a rotational basis