People are “dying in the streets” as politicians argue with each other, they have been told as Nicola Sturgeon and Douglas Ross visited a drug recovery project in Glasgow.

The First Minister and the Conservative leader met with staff, volunteers and service users at Bluevale Centre in the east end of the city.

It came about after the pair were involved in a spat challenging one another who represented working class people and communities.

Ross has said his party was the true vice of working class people and Sturgeon threw down the challenge to visit a working class area with her.

Glasgow Times:

He responded by accepting as log as it was to see somewhere dealing with the drugs death crisis that has spiralled out of control.

As both leaders said they were “open-minded” to the other’s ideas, the co-ordinator of the centre had a strong warning for them and said they were not doing enough.

Kenny Trainer, founder of the project said: “While both political leaders are arguing and while this is taking months to get anything done, people are dying in the streets, people are turning to addiction.

“If you look at 20 years ago, we had less than 300 drug deaths a year, now we’ve got 1,300, so what does that tell you?

“The services that are out there just now aren’t working because things are getting worse and people aren’t using the services because they’re getting passed from pillar to post.”

Sturgeon said she would consider the Conservatives’ Right to Recovery Bill when it is put before parliament but said that can take time and said action was being pursued now.

She said: ““I’ve opened my mind to putting a right to the recovery into statute, although I would repeat what I said earlier on that it’s actually what we do to give that substance that matters and that’s what we’re getting on with right now.

“I think that also needs to be a recognition that some of the drivers of drug misuse lie in poverty in a broken benefits system, so there’s a part for the Westminster Government to play here as well.

“But if all of us put politics aside and focus on the solutions, then I think we will be doing a great service to people who I have been speaking with here today.”

Glasgow Times:

Ross said he was open to a drug consumption room trial, which his party at Westminster are opposed to.

He said: “I’ve been very honest about this in the past, my wife’s a police officer and the policing side still gives me really serious concerns but how do I articulate those concerns if I’m not even willing to have a pilot in place to see how it would work in practice in Scotland?

“This is an issue that demands leadership and sometimes you have to compromise on some issues to get the right outcome.

“It might be that drug consumption rooms aren’t the answer, or they are the answer here in Scotland.

“But, given the seriousness of the situation, I won’t be opposing that pilot if the Scottish Government bring it forward and I want to look at the evidence.”