KNIFE-CARRYING PUPILS LINKED TO DRUGS MISUSE

Significant numbers of Scottish schoolchildren carry weapons,
including knives and machetes, and those who do are more likely to use
illegal drugs, said a survey published today.

Researchers at Glasgow University surveyed more than 3,000 pupils aged
between 11 and 16, from 20 schools across Scotland.

The work was carried out by Professor Neil McKeganey of the Centre for
Drugs Misuse Research and John Norrie, of the Robertson Centre for
Biostatistics at the university.

Their findings showed that one in three boys and one in 12 girls said
they had carried a weapon.

Boys who took illegal drugs were over three times as likely, and girls
over five times as likely to carry weapons, as their non-drug-taking
peers.

The survey revealed that almost all the boys who took five or more
different drugs reported carrying weapons.

The type of weapons included flick knives, machetes, razors, baseball
bats and hammers.

A Strathclyde police spokesman said: "This is very important research
because it appears to substantiate our very real concern about the
potentially lethal combination of young people, drugs misuse and
weapons-carrying.

"It certainly indicates that the risk of violence is a disturbing
spin-off from drugs misuse."