It's hard to celebrate but drugs deaths in Scotland are going down, just very slowly

Todd says personal struggles drive her on to solve country's crisis

- MARK MCGIVERN Chief Reporter

DRUGS and alcohol minister Maree Todd claims her own family's struggles have driven her to turn around Scotland's addiction death toll.

Todd sat down for a one-to-one interview with the Daily Record yesterday as she defended the progress of the SNP's £250million National Mission on drug deaths, despite fatalities among addicts still being the worst in Europe.

As the fifth drugs minister in five years, Todd has vowed to tackle the rise in use of deadly fake benzodiazepine pills that have caused a new wave of deaths.

And she has firmly stated that alcohol will be given equal priority in a new addiction strategy to be announced early next year.

Todd said her dad John, 82, is a living testament to recovery and a daily inspiration to her after beating alcoholism 40 years ago. Her mother Christina, who died three years ago, also battled booze and later gave back with support for AA.

She said: "My dad was determined that I speak about his experience in this role because we know there's lots of people out there think that they can't change.

"There are lots of people out there for whom it's overwhelming and they need to know that it can change.