It was with a combination of both amusement and fear that I read the comments of Ms Janice Jess -- 'Heroin addicts being turned into zombies' (Evening Express, May 16).

Amusement because this woman is so very wrong.

Fear because someone, somewhere may read her ludicrous diatribe and believe it.

Methadone is the most prominent treatment for opiate addiction because it is the most effective.

I have been on methadone for some time now and the benefits are fantastic. I have a good job, I wear nice, clean clothes and ride an expensive motorcycle. No one would know that I am on methadone save that I tell them.

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In the biggest single enforcement operation in the history of Strathclyde police, detectives and uniformed officers seized enough heroin for 7,000 drug deals yesterday in a series of dawn raids.

About 500,000 of drugs and stolen property were seized after more than 200 officers were drafted in for Operation Caesar. Thirty-eight people were put behind bars - the most arrested in such raids.

The raids, which were concentrated in the north and south of Glasgow, took weeks of surveillance and planning. Police said that last night more arrests would follow soon.

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Sir, - I write in response to your articles, "Far fewer Scots women must be jailed, says report" and "Behind the Vale of tears" (11 May). SACRO (Safeguarding Communities Reducing Offending) welcomes the fact that the minister for home affairs, Henry McLeish, directed that the prisons and social work inspectorates for Scotland should review and make recommendations about community disposals and the use of custody for women offenders in Scotland.

We hope the report will be acted upon, and particularly the statements that "almost all women offenders could be safely punished in the community without any major risk of harm to the general population", that "less than 1 per cent of women sent to prison are violent offenders", and also that "up to 52 per cent of female prison sentence admissions are fine defaulters".

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Sir, - I find it incredible that the Prison Service cannot keep drugs out of prisons. Talking about drug-free wings and rehabilitation, and not taking such a hard line on soft drugs: has the world gone mad?

Surely, the whole system should be closed down and started afresh, under new management and staff, if it has reached the point that drugs are so freely available that an addict can maintain his habit, or, worse, someone can go into prison who is not a drug taker and come out an addict.

How can there be any drugs whatsoever in a prison? Where are they getting them from?

David Gibbon Mayfield Road, Edinburgh

- --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett

[end]

The seven recommendations for the Scottish Office on women offenders

1. Enable more women to be released on bail to await trial, rather than remanded in custody at Cornton Vale

THE PROBLEM: On any given day, a quarter of the population of Cornton Vale - about 55 prisoners - is on remand. Such prisoners are a very vulnerable group, and five of the seven deaths have been among them. They are often far from home, withdrawing from drugs and anxious about their children and future. Courts tend to choose remand instead of bail when women are drug abusers with chaotic lifestyles and no stable home address.

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ITS authors admit there is not a single new idea in the report Women Offenders - A Safer Way, which was adopted by the Scottish Office yesterday as the blueprint for punishing women in future.

Yet it was hailed by criminal justice professionals as the most radical document in recent penal history.

Its radicalism is to start from the premise that women are different. They offend less often and less violently than men. They react with more distress to being fined and locked up in prison, because they have less money and bigger family responsibilities. They take drugs for more emotional reasons, to blot out the heartache of abuse and mental illness. And so it only makes sense for them to be punished in different ways.

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There has been a steep rise in the number of young men in Scotland dying from tongue, mouth and throat cancers, which are linked to smoking and drinking.

The number of men between 35 and 39 dying from these cancers has risen by 400 per cent since 1970-74.

Cancers of the oesophagus and larynx in young men have also increased.

The trend is revealed in a study published yesterday in a supplement of the 'British Journal of Cancer' outlining the incidences and deaths from cancers in Scotland. The study, funded by the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC), says deaths from lung cancer in yonug men are falling, although they are increasing in older women.

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What is the best way to reduce the number of women jailed for minor crimes?

Criminal justice policy in Scotland stands at a crossroads and the man who has to decide which route to take is the home affairs minister, Henry McLeish. Ahead lies a straight, broad path leading to the building of more prisons to hold the increasing number of women being jailed by the courts in love with the idea that prison is a deterrent.

England has already departed along that road. Judges there are jailing women so fast that the prison service has ordered 1,100 extra spaces - the biggest expansion in female cell space since the Second World War.

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A WATERSHED report due out this week is expected to recommend that far fewer Scottish women are jailed, after seven hanged themselves at Cornton Vale prison, near Stirling.

The report will put the Scottish prisons minister, Henry McLeish, on a collision course with his English colleagues over the issue of the imprisonment of women.

Clive Fairweather and Angus Skinner, Scotland's chief inspectors of prisons and of social work, are expected to recommend that far more women are diverted from jail towards drug rehabilitation, probation and community service.

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Doctors tell of struggle to cope as Aberdeen suffers big rise in numbers using hard drugs

Doctors in Aberdeen are struggling to cope with a huge surge in demand for help from drug addicts, some as young as 14.

One inner-city practice has had a 100-fold increase in the number of people requiring treatment in just five years. Addicts outside the GP network are having to wait up to ten months to be seen by the city's only dedicated drug abuse service.

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