I HAVE no argument with the widespread calls for improvement and increased provision of drug rehabilitation services. But I do despair at the widespread apparent acceptance of the inevitability of addiction. Prevention is a desirable aim, and I look in vain for any acknowledgement from the likes of Douglas Ross that Tory austerity could possibly have a part to play in the present state of affairs.

I thoroughly approve of Angela Constance’s passing reference to the part played by poverty and deprivation, and the aims of the Scottish Government’s Social Justice Commission. But it’s not enough to acknowledge these important glimmers of hope for the future only occasionally.

READ MORE: Drug deaths in England and Wales at highest level since records began

It’s a counsel of despair to focus only on treating the damage already done, without constantly and assertively pointing out that one of the important treatable causes of the problem of addiction is income inequality. This includes Scotland’s status as a country without much control over the serious and growing income inequality affecting the whole UK, and that is exacerbated by Scotland’s obligation to have most of its taxes filtered through a neighbouring country’s Treasury where money is siphoned off to pay for abominations like Trident and the monarchy – to name only two from the long list.

Politicians and The National: please give the social and political aspects of prevention of addition equal importance alongside the nature and availability of treatment. If that leads to an accusation that the drug problem is being used as another argument for independence, then that makes the argument no less true.

Derek Ball
Bearsden

CONSERVATIVE MP Steve Baker said recently that the government was considering undoing the triple lock on the state pension. It infuriated me that the interviewer never retorted that we have one of the poorest state pensions in Europe.

Sandy Gordon
via email