Pubdate: 23 Dec 1998 Source: The Herald (Scotland, UK) Contact: http://www.theherald.co.uk/ Author: Jim Wallace Note: Jim Wallace is leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. DRIVE OUT THE DEMONS From Pulp Fiction to hard fact, the drug culture is no longer something that exists only in the margins of Scottish society. Drugs permeate the world we live in; they refuse to be ignored or sidelined into consoling stereotypes. It's not just Premiership footballers and wayward rock stars, but an 11-year-old Glasgow boy, found with #500 of heroin in his schoolbag. Drugs are rife not just in our inner-city estates but in the rural North-east, where a large proportion of heroin overdoses involve working fishermen. These headlines are familiar, and it is a testimony to the sheer scale of the anti-drug campaign that drug abuse is now widely recognised as one of the most pervasive and damaging social problems afflicting Scotland today. In one recent survey, people cited drugs above health and housing as the second most important issue affecting Scottish communities after unemployment. What concerned me was that alcohol abuse didn't even get a mention. Drugs may be increasingly prevalent in Scottish society, but alcohol is part of the very fabric of our everyday lives. While drugs are still taboo in most circles, alcohol is almost universally accepted as a natural and necessary feature of any social occasion. In Scotland, alcohol is an integral part of our culture, our heritage, our religion. It is a drug of contradictions: a stimulant yet a tranquilliser, a celebrant, a medicine, a social lubricant, and a religious symbol. Most of the 90% of adults who drink alcohol do so without causing harm to anyone else. But behind the Dr Jekyll lurks a demonic Mr Hyde. Alcohol is an addictive, behaviour-altering drug which acts as a trigger for risky behaviour of all sorts, from drink-driving to unprotected sex to violence. The demon drink is present alongside almost every social problem facing modern Scotland, from homelessness, to unemployment, family break-up, domestic violence, child abuse, crime and disorder, and urban degeneration. For every shocking drugs headline there are a hundred stories involving alcohol. Some are well-documented, from Liam Gallagher's exploits on a cross- Channel ferry to Samantha Fox's drink-driving. The deeply ambivalent nature of society's favourite drug is encapsulated perfectly in the tragi-comic figure of Gazza, the likely lad-next-door, and his very public struggle with alcoholism. But most of these human tragedies never make the headlines. They are hidden away in the sheriff court pages of local papers, in social work files, in doctor's records. Alcohol abuse, in all its shapes and forms, is such a familiar part of our lives we have almost forgotten to notice it. While we weren't looking, this very personal addiction has become a national affliction. It is often said that admitting the addiction is the first step to breaking it. Like a first-time attender at an AA meeting, Scotland as a nation needs to recognise that it has a serious and deeply-damaging alcohol problem. To appreciate the scale of the problem, compare the relative harm caused by drink and drugs in Scotland. The statistics are sobering. Drug-related deaths account for less than a fiftieth of fatalities attributable to alcohol abuse. One-third of Accident and Emergency admissions have been drinking, and one-quarter of all men admitted to hospital are problem drinkers. Alcohol accounts for over one-third of deaths in fires and one-quarter of all deaths by drowning. In 1996, sustained alcohol abuse was directly responsible for more than 700 deaths in Scotland. To put it in perspective: six people died as a result of taking ecstasy in the same year. These figures only hint at the scale of the problem. Police estimate that alcohol is a factor in half of all incidents of crime, one-third of child abuse cases, and 40% of domestic violence attacks. The economic cost of alcohol abuse is equally staggering. It costs British industry some #2000m a year, and eight million working days are lost through drink-related absenteeism. Little wonder our companies struggle to maintain the productivity levels of their European counterparts. And given the pressure on the NHS, it's worth bearing in mind that the money spent in Scotland on in-patient alcohol treatment would pay for many hundreds of extra nurses. I'm not a killjoy. I'll enjoy my nip this new year as much as the next person. But Scotland as a nation must confront the unacceptable face of alcohol with the same vigour and energy that has characterised the anti-drugs campaign. The establishment of the Scottish Parliament is a real opportunity to reappraise our strategy for tackling alcohol and drug abuse in Scotland. I believe this must begin with an honest examination of our priorities. Current Government spending commitments tell us more about public perceptions of the problems than actual social need. While the Government spends more than #50m a year in Scotland on anti-drugs activities, the brunt of the cost of the battle against alcohol is being met by charity organisations. In many parts of Scotland the only targets for social work referrals are the volunteer alcohol counsellors supplied by the Scottish Council on Alcohol through its national network of local councils. This year the Scottish Office gave the SCA an annual grant of just #25,000 to run its national training scheme for volunteer counsellors. This represents a 20% cut, in cash terms, since 1980. The scheme actually costs #197,000, so the shortfall has to be met through SCA fund-raising. In other words, the provision of key alcohol treatment services in Scotland is being heavily subsidised by a charity which is itself competing in an expanding market for an ever-diminishing pool of public handouts. Taking money from one good cause to spend on another isn't the answer. But the Scottish Parliament's spending priorities must more accurately reflect the relative harm caused by drink and drug abuse. If, as I suspect, that means putting both issues at the forefront of our priorities, we must have the courage to do that. With the Parliament we can change much more than just funding. It's a chance to change our whole way of thinking. "Joined-up government" may have become a cliche, but drug and alcohol abuse are prime examples of issues which can be tackled effectively only on a cross-departmental basis. Our focus must be on prevention, and that means looking at the wider picture. Unemployment, social deprivation, poor housing, educational failure, boredom, family breakdown: these are both the causes and the end results of the vicious circle of drug and alcohol abuse. Breaking that circle means pooling the efforts of Government by co-ordinating strategy across departments from health, to education and employment, to home affairs. I suggest a powerful, cross-party drug and alcohol committee which would develop a strategy, based on best practice, and be drawn up in consultation with key players from local government, voluntary sector, health and education professions, youth groups, and the criminal justice system. The committee should be able to initiate legislation where necessary, and would be responsible for setting realistic targets and monitoring delivery of the programme across Government. Education will be at the heart of any strategy. Public debate on the drugs issue has, up until now, been characterised by prejudice and fear. The problem of drug abuse must be approached in a much more responsible and informed way, and that means dealing in facts and figures rather than politics and prejudice. When it comes to young people, the "just say no" approach is patronising and unrealistic. Any long-term change in attitude has to be based on informed decision-making. Early intervention in schools with educational initiatives from age five upwards will ensure young people are equipped to make responsible choices. One of the strong messages I took away from the Scotland Against Drugs campaign was that young people are cynical about politicians expressing such concern about drugs while saying very little about alcohol abuse. Education strategies must reject this hypocrisy by giving due weight to both drug and alcohol misuse. Part of the problem is access to accurate and objective information. While the dangers of drugs are regularly dramatised, the damage caused by alcohol goes largely undocumented. Ten years ago, police reports were obliged to state if alcohol or drugs was a factor in the crime. This is no longer the case. These days we can only guess at how many assaults and breaches of the peace are drink or drug-fuelled. Similarly, health boards are currently unable to calculate how much of their budget is spent on tackling alcohol abuse. We must have this data if we are to make informed choices. The Scottish Parliament must also set priorities with dealing with offenders. For drug-related crimes we need a criminal justice system which can distinguish between addicts and dealers and which can deal effectively with crimes of need and crimes of greed. Law enforcement should be targeted at those who produce, smuggle, and sell drugs, and these crimes should attract tough custodial sentences. But an affective penal system is not about locking up victims of debilitating conditions because of a political refusal to have an objective and informed debate on the use of cannabis. The Scottish Parliament could lead the way by setting up a fully independent inquiry to examine this issue in a non-political context. Inside prisons, the emphasis must be on rehabilitation. Only by breaking the addiction can we break the cycle of crime. The consistent under-resourcing of Scotland's prison service has rendered prisons incapable of dealing with their internal drug problems, let alone provide a safe context in which to rehabilitate addicts. The criminal justice system in Scotland must have the resources to run effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes, and to provide properly supervised non-custodial sentences to give long-term support to addicts and alcoholics, their families, and the wider community. With very young offenders the focus must be on dealing with the addiction at an early stage, and this is best done from within society's institutions. Automatically excluding pupils found with alcohol or drugs simply forces the problem underground by guaranteeing their complete exclusion from society. Schools must be given the support to protect all pupils, including, and perhaps especially, those who already abuse, from the damaging effects of substance addiction. If we are truly committed to stepping up the battle against drug and alcohol abuse we must as a nation have the courage to change the way we think and change the way we act. The advent of our own Scottish Parliament is the focus we need. It is a real opportunity to implement a comprehensive strategy developed out of informed, participative debate, and based on a set of pragmatic priorities. This is the first, vital step in excising Scotland's demons. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake