MOTHERS MARCH TO CLEAN UP NEEDLE CITY

Politicians, Pop Stars And Celebrities Join Crusade Calling For Ruthless
Action To Beat The Scourge Of Drugs

The missing members of a generation peered from placards held aloft in a
packed city park. Those left behind stood silent, clutching images of their
loved ones and listening for answers.

Politicians, pop stars and celebrities all took their turn to attack the
scourge of a nation and welcome a new approach to tackling it. In Latin
America the Disappeared were lost to dictators. In Glasgow they are lost to
drugs.

Last Sunday 15,000 people marched through the city and called for the
dealers to be swept from the streets. It was the climax of a campaign run
by Scotland's biggest-selling tabloid newspaper against the drugs epidemic,
which asked ordinary people to 'deal with it' directly.

Despite having suffered a stroke at the end of last year, Mary McLelland
was determined to be there. The 59-year-old former nurse lost her son
Christopher three years ago. He had injected himself with heroin.

'I was pretty tired on Monday but really pleased I'd made it,' she said. 'I
felt a strong bond between many people who had not even met before.

'I felt a determination to do something. This feeling was represented by
the placards bearing the names and faces of our loved ones. All the
photographs tell the story of an individual family tragedy.'

Greater Glasgow Health Board estimates that there may be as many as 10,000
injecting drug users in the city. What the marchers are calling for is
expressed in the Daily Record's charter against drugs, which demands
government action to clamp down on dealers and rehabilitate users.

'We must unite as a community to stop children becoming addicted in the
first place,' added McLelland.

The charter wants to see dealers' assets seized by the Inland Revenue and
police and judges empowered to take all cars used in drug deals. If drugs
are sold from a council property, the tenants should be evicted and banned
from having a council home again, it says.

Much of the inspiration has come from the action group Mothers Against
Drugs (MAD). Many of those involved in the group took to the streets last
weekend, including founding member Gaille McCann, who spoke at a rally.

MAD was launched following the death of her neighbour, 13-year-old Allan
Harper, in January 1998, and the group held a candlelight vigil throughout
the Cranhill area where the boy lived. The next step was to report any
signs of drug dealing to the police and it is this strategy that has been
championed in recent weeks.

McCann said: 'The success of Sunday's rally is that it has brought
recognition to the role of locals. It has given local people's fight
against drugs credibility.'

She added: 'This is all about making people responsible for themselves and
their communities. We have called for the confiscation of dealers' assets
and this must be something that the Scottish Parliament now recognises.'

McCann is often scathing of politicians - whatever party they come from -
but to say the event was politically star-studded is an understatement.

Chancellor Gordon Brown was joined by Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell and
Scotland's First Minister Henry McLeish. SNP leader John Swinney was among
the speakers.

Yet less than a mile to the west, along the river Clyde, one of the
Holyrood Parliament's most famous members was addressing a very different
gathering.

Perhaps only 200 people crammed into a small club to listen to Tommy
Sheridan, of the Scottish Socialist Party, but their passion was as
tangible as that of the thousands up river.

Having led anti-poll tax and anti-Trident campaigns Sheridan is no stranger
to controversy, and he wants to see a dramatically different approach - the
legalisation of cannabis.

He believes that this would break the link between the substance and hard
drugs, cutting the dealers out of the equation.

Sheridan, who does not drink, smoke or take drugs, believes heroin should
be available to addicts on prescription, as in Switzerland, Holland and
Germany. 'Break the link, take away the crime,' he says.

The legalise cannabis meeting enraged the Daily Record which has launched a
series of scathing attacks on Sheridan culminating in its description of
him as a 'low life' who had crawled out from under a stone.

Peter Cox, the paper's editor, toasted the march's success last week. 'The
police estimate 15,000 marched, with another 3,000 to 5,000 elsewhere.
There hasn't been a demonstration in Glasgow that has attracted 20,000
people since the anti-Thatcher marches of the 1980s.

'Ordinary families suffering the same hardship were brought together. It
was heartwarming to see.'

But he had harsh words for Sheridan, a man he considers to be an
opportunist out for publicity.

'I can't believe that an unelected MSP, and I say he is unelected because
he is drawn from a national list and does not represent a constituency, can
draw so much attention from the main issue. I've got no time for him at all.'

Supporters of Sheridan say the Record's campaign is little more than a
circulation drive, a claim Cox vehemently denies. They argue that the
traditionally Labour-supporting newspaper is aiming its venom at their man
because he threatens to take votes from the party at the general election.

Now the mothers' campaign looks set to expand. Gaille McCann has received
calls of support from women around the UK who want to start up their own
action groups.

Mary McLelland, meanwhile, reminds people of the massive human scar that
drugs have left on this city and on her life.

'We must break the shame barrier - so many parents of victims hide their
feelings,' she said. 'I am not ashamed of my son. He tried to beat heroin
addiction.'

She hopes the mothers' action will mean that one day no more young people
will join the ranks of Glasgow's Disappeared.