THE Government has headed off criticism that it is going soft on drugs by announcing a zero tolerance policy towards all forms of illegal drug-taking in Scotland. The Scottish home affairs minister, Henry McLeish, said yesterday that taking an ecstasy tablet in Edinburgh was just as illegal and unacceptable as selling heroin in Glasgow's Easterhouse. Both put profits in the hands of the dealers responsible for the pills sold at the gates of schools, said Mr Meleish, speaking at the launch of a six-month campaign against drugs and housebreaking in Strathclyde. [continues 500 words]
Drug Tests Under Review THE CHIEF Inspector of Prisons in Scotland, Mr Clive Fairweather, no longer believes that drugs will overwhelm the jail system. He stated this yesterday while calling for a more focused anti-drugs policy in Scotland's jails. With the more coherent drugs strategy being developed by the Scottish Prison Service, he was hopeful that a lot could be done in the future to reduce the number of prisoners returning to the Community with drug habits which led to more crime. [continues 505 words]
SCOTTISH prisons should be doing more to stamp out heroin abuse and send former addicts back into society drug-free, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Clive Fairweather has warned. In his annual report, Mr Fairweather called for jails to launch a concerted campaign against the "more corrupting" drugs such as opiates. Mandatory drugtesting (MDT) has revealed heroin use behind bars is twice as high in Scotland as in England. Mr Fairweather recommended that suspected heroin users should be targeted for testing and given stiffer penalties than cannabis uses when caught - a policy already adopted south of the Border. [continues 421 words]
A PERTH couple were continuing a bedside vigil at Perth Royal Infirmary yesterday, as their teenage daughter fought for her life in intensive care - the latest alleged victim of the dance drug Ecstasy. Eighteen-year-old fitness fanatic Julia Dawes has received round-the-clock treatment since a friend's birthday night out on the town turned to tragedy. The teenager fell critically ill after celebrations which ran into the early hours of Saturday morning and was rushed to hospital. Her devastated parents, Alan and Jacqueline Dawes - owners of the Hanovers health club in Perth's George Street - were by her side yestereay as a team of doctors fought to save her life. Her condition was described as "critical." [continues 297 words]
Police have condemned "reckless" drug dealers after children playing on waste ground discovered 1,000 Ecstasy tablets. Four young boys discovered the tablets - with a street value of UKP10,000 - in Greenock, near Glasgow. The children did not touch the drugs, but led a local woman to the find, and she alerted police. Detective Sergeant Jim Mimnagh of Strathclyde Police said the dealers had acted in a "totally irresponsible and reckless manner" in hiding drugs there. The boys, aged from eight to 10, were digging and playing on waste ground when they found the securely wrapped haul. [continues 237 words]
Families and friends of heroin users are being urged to press home urgent warnings about a potentially lethal batch of the drug. Strathclyde Chief Constable John Orr said users were not aware that unusually pure heroin was being sold in the west of Scotland. He said that because of the lifestyle of many users, they had not seen warnings on TV or in newspapers. It is believed the heroin is partly responsible for the rising toll of drug-related deaths in the Strathclyde force area this year. [continues 239 words]
It took the death of a 13-year-old boy from heroin to arouse the people of Cranhill to reclaim the housing scheme's mean stairways and corridors from the drug dealers. The trade in heroin, amphetamines and cannabis was quite open and often backed by violence. To youngsters here, picking their way past a hollow-eyed figure injecting heroin in a tower-block corridor was commonplace. This week's Home Office survey warning of a heroin epidemic among teenagers was no shock to Cranhill, where for years parents have warned their children not to pick up needles or "sweeties" but felt powerless to fight back. [continues 805 words]
A TEENAGE girl lost her fight for life yesterday, three days after taking ecstasy at a friend's birthday party. The parents of 18-year-old Julia Dawes took the decision to switch her life-support machine off after a scan confirmed specialists' fears that her brain was dead. The fitness instructor's and subsequent death bore similarities to the circumstances of Leah Betts's death in 1995, who died at her 18th birthday celebration at the family home. Miss Betts's father, Paul, who has campaigned to raise drugs awareness last night renewed his appeal to parents to become fully informed of the potential risks and speak openly with their children. [continues 728 words]
Muddled approach to epidemic means drastic rethink needed to save lives THE man charged with leading the country's battle against drugs has admitted there is no coherent policy to tackle the current epidemic of deaths. David Macauley, director of Scotland Against Drugs, says a total review of government pilicy is urgently needed to try and stem the appalling number of fatalities. And yesterday he was supported by SADs chairman Sir Tom Farmer who said the 1.5m extra pledged by the government to fight the drugs menace in Scotland was not enough. [continues 924 words]
THE tragic death of another young girl from an ecstasy overdose last week brings into sharp focus, once more, the fact that Scotland has a drugs problem which is defying all attempts to defeat it. However, the death of 18-year-old Julia Dawes must surely prompt us to look yet again at what, precisely, we are doing to tackle this menace in our society. Today, the leaders of the organisation which is supposed to be in the vanguard of this operation - Scotland Against Drugs - complain that they are being frustrated by a lack of a coherent national policy on combating drug misuse and call for tougher police action against dealers and for the appointment of a drugs tsar operating exclusively in Scotland. [continues 235 words]
THE parents of a teenager who died after taking the dance drug ecstasy have spoken publicly for the first time about their daughter's death. They warned other parents of the dangers their children face when they experiment with drugs. ''Parents know they have children going to bars and clubs just like Julia did last Saturday night. "They know their dear lovely children can be foolish, they can succumb to peer pressure, they can be vulnerable and they can die,'' said the teenager's mother. [continues 178 words]
THE statistics on drug misuse in Scotland make grim and depressing reading. To quote almost exactly from the latest Scottish Office report, drug use continues to be most common among those aged 16 to 25. One of the most serious concerns is the age at which people are starting to misuse drugs. A recent survey has revealed that 11 per cent of pupils in their first year of secondary school were taking drugs and the figure rose to 57 per cent by the fourth year, over 1 per cent of whom were using heroin. The statistics are frightening and every parent should he aware that no child is safe from exposure to drugs. They are ubiquitous. [continues 515 words]
Ecstasy campaigners tell of theit dismay after Perth teenager loses her fight for life THE father of Leah Betts, the 18-year-old who died after taking an ecstasy tablet in 1995, said yesterday he planned to move his family from England to Scotland because of stronger community ties which provided a better foundation for combating drug problems. Paul Betts said he had been impressed at the positive reception he had received at a series of school talks he had given in Scotiand, after being largely ignored in his native Essex. [continues 452 words]
Paisley MP demands answers from customs over failed 'sting' after 54th death by overdose The anti-drugs campaigner MP Irene Adams is to demand a government inquiry into whether a failed customs 'sting' is responsible for a massive increase in drug-related deaths in the west of Scotland. On Friday David McCracken, 26, died in a house in Ferguslie Park Avenue in Adams' Paisley North constituency, the 54th person to die of a heroin overdose. Police claim that a batch of super strength heroin may be responsible for the spiralling increase in drug deaths. Two kilos of heroin went missing in a bungled operation aimed at netting major drug dealers in Scotland and England and is believed to have been circulating in Glasgow. [continues 583 words]
Scottish scientists are helping police crack down on drug barons through a technique which can pinpoint the exact source of illegal narcotics. A team of forensic scientists at Lothian and Borders Police are perfecting a method of fingerprinting drugs so they can trace where they were grown. Researchers believe the results could help customs offidais to monitor the shipment of heroin, cocaine and cannabis around the world, and cut off supply at source. The force's head of forensic science, Dr. Allan Jamieson, said yesterday that researchers were analysing drug samples with an electron microscope. [continues 171 words]
Scottish prisons have a drugs problem that is far worse than those in England, according to random tests earned out on inmates. An average of roughly 20 per cent of English and Welsh prisoners are testing positive for drugs in their bloodstream, but in one of Scotland's jails the proportion is as high as 46 per cent. It is also believed that heroin is a much bigger problem in Scottish jails than in English and Welsh prisons, where only 4 per cent tested positive for opiates last year. In Scottish institutions, heroin use is believed to be three times as high. [continues 326 words]
Penal reformers have welcomed possible signs of a shift in attitude among sheriffs in response to the spate of Scottish prison suicides, after a young mother escaped a jail term for smuggling drugs. Dawn Howie, 22, who works as a nanny in Bearsden, Glasgow, was sentenced to 300 hours' community service yesterday after she admitted carrying UKP650 of heroin into Perth prison hidden in balloons in her underwear. A first offender, she had been pressured to smuggle in the packages by her prisoner boyfriend after he was stabbed in the jail. [continues 560 words]
UKP1.1m initiative announced after deaths of five inmates in ten days THE Government yesterday launched a UKP1.1 million initiative to tackle Scotland's spiralling jail suicide rate following the worst spate of deaths in the prison service's history. New measures to identify and help prisoners at risk of killing themselves were announced yesterday by the Scottish home affairs minister, Henry McLeish, after the deaths of five inmates in ten days. Mr McLeish signalled moves to extend the availability of non-custodial sentences, including electronic tagging and new drug treatment orders, which he predicted judges and sheriffs would take up. [continues 809 words]
Improved coaching and facilities would be a bonus, but we must address young people's attitude in Scotland towards drugs and alcohol. Teaching how to play with smaller balls on smaller pitches may improve skills but not necessarily attitudes. David A Balfour, Aberdeen [end]
Inside Scotland
