Pubdate: Sun, 10 Feb 2008
Source: Herald, The (UK)
Copyright: 2008 The Herald
Contact:  http://www.theherald.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/189

TACKLING SCOURGE OF DRUGS

The two-year-old who mimes how to make a heroin "wrap"  at nursery is
a disturbing but timely reminder of just  how vital it is that we get
drugs policy right. A  re-evaluation of drugs policy was one of the
measures  won by the Conservatives in return for supporting the  SNP's
Budget. The Tories' view is that rehabilitation  programmes leading to
complete abstinence will be more  effective than long-term methadone
prescriptions. The  announcement of a review by Audit Scotland on the
effectiveness of the money spent on different drugs  services,
therefore, is a welcome step that should  provide some objective
measure of different policies,  which tend to polarise opinion.

Fergus Ewing, who, as Minister for Community Safety,  has
responsibility for drugs policy, thinks methadone  should be available
along with "more opportunities"  such as drug testing and treatment
orders in courts.  For those to be effective, places in treatment
centres  have to be available, but they are expensive and only
successful when addicts are committed to coming off  drugs. With an
increase in drug-related deaths last  year (which included 97 deaths
from methadone), the  evidence is that our current policies are not
succeeding. Prescribing liquid methadone to heroin  addicts is an
effective method of reducing the harm to  their health from injecting
illegal drugs, while also  reducing the harm to the wider community
from them  stealing to pay for their habit. However, with only 3%  of
addicts drug-free after three years on methadone, it  scarcely makes a
dent in tackling the problem of drug  dependence.

A proper evaluation of the effectiveness of the #12m a  year we are
spending on methadone is needed urgently,  but there must also be
agreement on what a drugs policy  should achieve. The future of the
drugs courts, piloted  in Fife and Glasgow by the previous
administration, is  under review, along with other specialist
hearings.  Although re-offending rates were high, the offenders
involved had fewer convictions than in the previous two  years. There
is no simple answer to dealing with drug  abuse and drug crime without
a clear picture of how  well different strategies are working. The
investigation by Audit Scotland of the effectiveness of  the millions
of pounds spent on anti-drugs services is  welcome, but it will only
be the "watershed" hailed by  Annabel Goldie if it is followed by
programmes that  prevent more lives being blighted by drugs and more
toddlers regarding packaging heroin as normal.
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MAP posted-by: Derek