The Scottish Government has accepted the need for adequate funding for drug and alcohol servcies following tens of millions of pounds of budget cuts but refused to back a call for £15m to re-instate rehab beds.

MSPs debated drug and alcohol related deaths amid rapidly rising drug deaths and an HIV increase in Glasgow.

Joe Fitzpatrick, Public Health Minister, said there was no single solution but the problem needed a “multi layered approach".

He said the Drugs Death Task Force he set up was developing work to “address the levels of drug deaths we are seeing.”

Mr Fitzpatrick said: “Criminalisation doesn’t work" and the 1971 Drugs Act was “not fit for purpose.”

Monica Lennon, Labour health spokeswoman, said she was “frightened and overwhelmed by the scale of the emergency”.

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She said she agreed there was a need for a change it the law but added “We can be better with the resources we have”.

There were around 20 to 25 MSPs present though the two-hour long debate.

Annie Wells, Glasgow Conservative MSP, one of only two Glasgow MSPs to sit through the whole debate, said the parliament had to act “here and now”.

Ms Wells called for MSPs to back the Conservative amendment for £15m for rehab beds.

She said there were only 14 beds in Glasgow and 70 across Scotland.

Ms Wells, added: “Are we going to pretend to be a parliament or act like one.”

She said she did not think decriminalisation or consumption rooms were the solution, stating they could only help if there was high quality services.

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The Tories amendment didn’t support calls to reform the UK drugs laws or devolve powers, so Labour and the SNP wouldn’t back it.

The SNP agreed to support a Labour amendment that stated cumulative cuts of £40m over five years had “negatively impacted on the provision and capacity of essential addiction services.”

It agreed the “need for adequate funding”.

However, the SNP and Labour did not back the Conservative motion calling for “the Scottish Government to provide £15.4 million for residential rehabilitation beds in the upcoming Scottish Budget.”

Annemarie Ward, chief executive of Faces and Voices of Recovery, who have been campaigning for more rehab beds, sat though the debate and was disappointed by the Scottish Government response.

She said: “They keep making the same mistakes. It’s said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

“Well, this government is showing us they are insane. They are refusing to help people get well. They would rather use rhetoric, posturing and farce to fight each other than save lives.”