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.