Why are Sturgeon and Ross visiting a drugs project?

The first minister and the Scottish Conservative leader are making a joint visit to a drugs recovery group. Why?

Why are they going?

The visit was arranged after the pair had an exchange about Scotland's drug death rate at First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.

The first minister and SNP leader had challenged the Conservative leader to visit a working-class area with her, to see the impact of the Tory UK government bringing an end to the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit.

Douglas Ross agreed to this but also suggested they visit the Bluevale Community Club in Glasgow's Haghill area as he pushed for more action to tackle Scotland's drugs problem.

His party want a "right to recovery" to be enshrined in law, giving drug users a legal entitlement to receive addiction treatment.

Nicola Sturgeon has said she has an "open mind" on the Tory proposals and hopes to find "maximum common ground" in dealing with the drugs crisis.

Where are they going?

The club also offers the opportunity to participate in sports like boxing

They are going to the Bluevale Community Club in Glasgow.

It's a facility which helps those with addictions, as well as diverting young people away from drugs.

The club's founder Kenny Trainer said the club was "a place run by local people for local people, so they get access to the support and services they need."

The club runs a number of community initiatives including a recovery café, where those with experience of addiction can come together. It also provides access to sports classes.

Mr Trainer said he hoped it was not a "one-off photo op", but "a turning point" which changed things.

How bad is Scotland's drugs problem?

The latest annual figures show there were 1,339 drug-related deaths in Scotland last year, a record high for the seventh year in a row.

That's an increase of 75 from the 1,264 recorded the previous year.

It means Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe.

And its rate is more than three-and-a-half times that of England and Wales.

The number of drug-related deaths has increased substantially over the past 20 years and is now almost three times higher than it was a decade ago, with the upward trend accelerating since 2013.

What is being done to tackle it?

Medicines, such as methadone, are offered to heroin addicts to reduce the risk of fatal overdose.

However, methadone is controversial because it has been implicated in more drug-related deaths than heroin, the drug it substitutes.

The Scottish government has pledged to spend an extra £250m over the next five years in an attempt to reduce the number of deaths, including £20m a year on increasing the number of residential rehabilitation beds across the country.

The Scottish Drug Death Taskforce, which was set up in 2019, has also been working to increase the distribution of Naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opiate-related overdose.

Almost two-thirds of ambulance crews are now able to distribute it to people who might need it.

What does the Scottish government say?

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously admitted that the number of deaths was "indefensible" and "a national disgrace", and that her government had not done enough to tackle the problem.

The Scottish government has also said it wants to introduce drug consumption rooms - where users take their own drugs under the supervision of medical staff at a special facility.

However, it has faced "legal barriers" to doing so as the Misuse of Drugs Act is reserved to Westminster.

The prime minister has said that while the number of deaths from drugs was "utterly tragic", he was not in favour of any policy which could encourage people to take drugs.

What do opposition parties say?

Douglas Ross invited the first minister to join him on a visit to the Bluevale project

Opposition parties say cuts to drug rehab and addiction programmes by the Scottish government have had a big part to play in the upward trend in the number of deaths in recent years.

Mr Ross has called on Ms Sturgeon to back his party's proposal for a Right to Recovery Bill.

The bill, which has been developed with recovery and treatment experts, would enshrine in law that everyone can access the treatment they need, including a residential rehabilitation place.

Mr Ross has said the system was "thoroughly broken", and that "small steps are not cutting it". He has warned that "the crisis is getting worse and spiralling out of control."

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the deaths were the "tragic consequences of years of failure to get to grips with this growing crisis in Scotland and to address the threat posed by drugs".

This started as a political game of invitation ping-pong between the two party leaders.

Ms Sturgeon asked Mr Ross to join her in a working-class community after UK ministers opted to end the £20 uplift to Universal Credit, hoping to hammer home the impact of the policy first-hand.

Mr Ross was loathe to duck the challenge, but responded with one of his own - to visit a drugs recovery group, in light of Scotland hitting a grim new record level of fatalities.

Both invitations were loaded with political intent, and delivered in the charged atmosphere of FMQs - but the point-scoring will likely be left behind at Holyrood.

This is because the drugs deaths crisis is something that all sides agree should be above petty party politics. It is literally a matter of life and death.

This is the kind of issue on which people will expect even the fiercest of political rivals to put their differences to one side and work together to find solutions.