DUNDEE ADDICTS WAITING FOR HELP

The new figures released for January to March have just been made
available by ISD Scotland -- the statistics branch of the NHS.

It was also revealed that 33% of all recorded Dundee addicts were
still waiting for an appointment a year after the decision that
treatment was necessary.

In Perth and Kinross 10 addicts were still waiting for an appointment
as at the end of March.

That figure for Fife was 77 -- 13 of who had been waiting for up to a
year and 39 who had gone without treatment for more than a year.

There were no addicts waiting for an appointment in Angus.

Nationally a total of 1298 addicts had been waiting for more than two
weeks for an appointment with almost 400 waiting for a year or more.

The figures also revealed that 755 addicts had been waiting for over
a year to have an initial assessment.

The figures come as the Tele has reported about the extent to which
parts of Dundee are affected by heroin.

Steve Dalton, lead officer for the Dundee City Drug and Alcohol
Action Team, said new figures should be approached cautiously.

"We are still at an early stage with information gathering and
locally we are getting out and looking for people who need help so
this would cause figures to increase," Mr Dalton said.

"However, I'm certainly not aware of anyone waiting for up to one
year for an appointment -- I would find that extremely unlikely.

"Direct access ensures that no one waits longer than 72 hours for an
appointment -- meaning people get the services they need when they need it.

"We provide basic care as well as signposting people to other
organisations and had anticipated registering 300 new clients in the
last year though this process. However, we've actually had 438 new
clients in that time."

Last month the first national drugs strategy since devolution was
unveiled by the Scottish Government.

It is hoped the strategy, Putting Scotland on the Road to Recovery,
will help cut the estimated annual UKP2.6 billion financial burden of
problem drug use to the Scottish economy and society.

Key measures include a strengthening of existing powers to seize
assets from drug dealers and a tracking of investment in drug
rehabilitation projects and the outcomes they deliver.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said, "Our new drugs strategy sets
out proposals to improve the delivery of drug treatment to help more
addicts live drug free lives.

"Access to effective treatment and rehabilitation is critical to the
goal of recovery from drug misuse and efforts must be made to improve it."

Andrew Horne, director of operations for Addiction Scotland said, "We
have seen just over 400 people in the last year and every one of them
was seen within 72 hours.

"That's not to say they will access full treatment, but that they
will certainly seek and obtain some level of help and support from us.

"Perhaps the people included in these figures don't know or aren't
aware of our services because nobody would wait more than 72 hours
unless they decided to."