Drugs Uncut

In this episode Julie and Austin are joined by Adrienne Hannah as she reflects on her career as she retires from SDF. Over 11.5 years with SDF, Adrienne's work has focused on educating drug services about sexual health and educating sexual health services about drug use. Alongside highlighting this work she shares her insight into current issues related to the HIV outbreak, children and young people, and gender and sexuality.

Arild Knutsen is Leader of The Association for Humane Drug Policy, a drug user organisation in Norway. Arild recently visited Scotland and presented at SDF’s International Overdose Day conference. In this episode, Arild joins SDF colleagues, Jason Wallace, Louise Aitken, and Wez Steele to talk about the influence of living experience; the importance of living experience representation in the media, policy and government; how this involvement plays out in reality and harm reduction initiatives, drug consumption rooms and overdose prevention in each country.

Drugs Uncut is back! In this episode we are joined by Scottish Drugs Forum’s Louise Aitken and Chris Messenger and discuss employment and training and the Addiction Worker Training Project. The project has recently seen changes and has received its first funding from The Scottish Government in response to the recommendations of The Drug Deaths Task Force which will double its capacity.

Dr Roy Robertson has worked as a GP in Edinburgh since 1980, where he was at the forefront of identifying and taking steps to address the emerging dual public health crises of HIV and injecting heroin use. He is also Professor of Addiction Medicine in the University of Edinburgh Usher Institute. Throughout his career, Roy has consistently had to challenge the status quo to support the vulnerable people in his care, whilst simultaneously informing the rest of the world through a range of research and policy work. In this episode, Roy discusses what it was like in the early days of the HIV epidemic in Edinburgh in the 1980s, reflects on his years of practice, and provides insight into the potential solutions to addressing Scotland’s on-going public health emergency - drug overdose deaths. This episode was recorded especially for World AIDS Day and before the tragic drug-related death figures for Scotland in 2019 were announced on the 15th of December 2020.

As a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, street homelessness in Scotland was almost eradicated overnight through the use of hotels to accommodate people who have been rough sleeping. In this episode, we are joined by Hugh Hill, Director of Services and Development at The Simon Community Scotland - who have been instrumental in providing support to those temporary accommodated - to discuss the lockdown and the unexpected benefits for some people living on the Scotland’s streets; how services have struggled and improved; and what happens when lockdown eases.

The COVID-19 lockdown has led to harm reduction services having to adapt to find ways of maintaining provision and support to people who rely on them. In this episode, the second looking at responses to the outbreak, we are joined by Sophie Given, Scottish Drugs Forum's Officer for Harm Reduction and Emergency Responses, to find out how the lockdown is impacting on people's access to harm reduction services, such as sterile injecting equipment, and how services are adapting through innovation and collaboration.

There is an expectation that services and planners include people in decisions that directly affect their lives. So why does this rarely happen when decisions are being made that affect people who are experiencing drug problems? This is now one of the most pressing questions facing the drugs field in Scotland and beyond. In this episode Jason Wallace, SDF's Senior Development Officer for Volunteering and Engagement, joins us to discuss what the perceived barriers to engaging with people are and how they can be overcome. Jason describes a pioneering initiative in Glasgow that provides a safe space for people who use drugs to discuss issues, raise these with service providers and others and to hold people to account. We were also delighted to chat with a member of the group, Martin, and also SDF Peer Research Volunteer, Matthew, to discuss what opportunities like the above initiative means to the people attending.