Readers' letters: Drug treatment is best left to health workers

I was pleased to read that Police Scotland are recruiting (News, May 27).

In the field of problematic drug use, too much of their time is taken up with issues more effectively handled in health arenas.

If that nettle is grasped, so much more can be made of the new recruits and their time policing much more in line with public demand.

There has been progress in Scotland (other than an upwards trajectory of deaths under Sturgeon, Constance and Fitzpatrick), but this is despite the SNP, not because of them.

Audit Scotland has made that clear, with comments about the SNP's management of our tragic drug-related deaths figures and hapless strategies in a vein pretty similar to Sue Gray’s report of Boris Johnson' antics in No 10.

There are some great opportunities in the offing: the continuation of the sentencing guidelines from the Lord Provost around small quantities of personal use of any drug; diversion tactics keeping our young people out of prison and helping them rebuild their lives; Glasgow Labour Paul Sweeney MSP bringing in a bill (hopefully with cross party support) to permit and set up safer drug using facilities/overdose prevention rooms that are so successful in avoiding drug deaths around the world; more and more agencies and people, including an Edinburgh taxi firm, carrying naloxone, an overdose reversal treatment saving lives.

would love to see consideration of Canada's "Good Samaritan law", whereby police officers do not automatically attend at "drug scenes" when overdose is suspected.

Evidence suggest this is particularly successful in Toronto where overdoses are routinely called in which would not have been if those in the vicinity, such as friends, were fearing arrest.

Douglas McBean, Edinburgh.

Scotland’s energy deal was a poor one

Leah Gunn Barrett com-plains about the cost of wind farm energy connection charges to the National Grid (letters, May 26).

Connection charges vary due to the type of connection, the size required and where the connection is located.

The cost of connection is calculated by the local transmission owner and in Scotland the network is run by SSE and SP Energy. The subsidy for winfarms is paid by all of the UK.

If we consider wind farms as an example, the longer the windmill blades, the more expensive they are to build and maintain, but they generate more power.

This higher power requires more expensive electronics to connect to the grid. Shorter blades result in lesser power generation, giving a cheaper connection.

The rest of the UK will get £8.79bn from developers for 8GW capacity, where Scotland only managed £700m for 25GW.

On these results, if the SNP Government hadn’t set a maximum bid and negotiated the same as England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we could have received about £27.5bn

Just think how much better things would be without an SNP Scottish Government.

Alastair Murray, Edinburgh.

Independence would make Scotland rich

An article in the Sunday Times reports that Edinburgh based energy consultants, Wood Mackenzie, say that even without the windfall tax, the Westminster Treasury is set to rake in a record £12 billion from North Sea operators this year.

So where is Sunak’s “every home in the UK will receive £400” coming from? Scotland!

Remember this when the referendum comes. Independence would make Scotland rich.

Elizabeth Scott, Edinburgh.

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