CALLS TO OFFER 'SAFE' ROOMS WHERE USERS COULD TAKE DRUGS

Radical calls to consider prescribing heroin to addicts in Scotland
and setting up "safe" rooms where users could take drugs divided
politicians yesterday.

Scotland's Futures Forum, a think-tank set up by the Scottish
Parliament, proposed that both initiatives should be given a trial
after proving successful in tackling drug abuse in the Netherlands.

The forum's suggestions yesterday were part of a raft of new options
for Scotland put forward in a bid to halve the massive amount of
damage caused by drug and alcohol abuse by 2025.

Scotland has the highest drug-related death rate in Europe, with the
overall cost of damage through alcohol and drugs in terms of crime
and neglect estimated at nearly UKP5bn.

Other key ideas from the forum included moving towards legalising
cannabis - a measure which conflicts with last month's controversial
decision by the UK Government, championed by Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, to recategorise the drug from class C back to the tougher class B.

Politicians gave a mixed response yesterday to the forum's report,
which was based on 17 months of work canvassing international experts
on how drugs and alcohol are dealt with around the world. Liberal
Democrat Shadow Justice Secretary Margaret Smith welcomed the report.

She said: "Drugs misuse is a global problem and if other countries
have developed new and radical solutions, then it is sensible to
consider them for use in Scotland."

However, the Scottish Conservatives described safe rooms, or
"shooting galleries", and taxing and regulation of cannabis, as the
"flawed and recycled" ideas of the past.

Leader Annabel Goldie MSP said yesterday: "We believe that people
should be assisted to get off drugs, not helped to take them. The
approach of the last Scottish Executive in dealing with drugs abuse
was deeply flawed and I'm afraid the recommendations we see today are
siphoned from the same school of thought."

Instead, she said the way forward had been set out in the new
national drugs strategy for Scotland which received unanimous backing
in the Scottish Parliament last week.

Scottish Socialist Youth, the youth wing of the Scottish Socialist
Party, was pleased to see "some common sense at last on the issue of
drugs in Scotland". Its spokesman James Nesbitt said: "The war on
drugs has failed our society, and it's time for a ceasefire so we can
explore other methods of helping people."

Figures in the forum's report highlighted that the availability and
affordability of alcohol has "massively increased" in the past 20-30
years. In 2008, alcohol was 62% cheaper in real terms than it was
between 1980 and 2005, with UK consumption of alcohol doubling over
the past 40 years.

The Scottish Government, which is about to publish an alcohol
strategy following on from its recent drugs strategy, said the
options raised by the forum would be given further consideration.

But a spokesman added that there were "no current plans" to introduce
Dutch-style drug consumption rooms in Scotland due to "complex legal
and ethical issues that cannot be easily resolved."