MSPs heard that in June this year there were 117 people waiting more than 26 weeks for an assessment, which was still high, but down compared to the 622 in 2007. "We welcome this progress, but there is still some way to go in Aberdeen and some parts of Scotland if we are to drive down waiting times and tackle drug abuse effectively" Mr Salmond said. He congratulated Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing for securing a cross-party consensus on the government’s first drug strategy which emphasises recovery instead of putting addicts on heroin substitute methadone. Full Article at Press and Journal