DEMAND FOR ACTION AS DRUG ADDICT FIGURES SOAR

The number of drug addicts in Glasgow is more than five times the national
average, according to official figures yesterday.

Statistics showing that up to 15,368 problem drug users live in the city
emerged yesterday amid concern surrounding the resurgence of temazepam, a
drug banned in Scotland after being linked to a series of deaths and
amputations.

Glasgow City Council warned that the number of addicts and the needs of
their children were putting an intolerable strain on social services, and
it urged the government to invest in drugs prevention and treatment
programmes.

The figures, released by the council, suggest there are 30-37 drug users
for every 1,000 adults in the city. The national average is six per 1,000.

The last council audit of drug use in 1991 suggested there were 8,500 drug
users in Greater Glasgow. The new figures suggest the number is now between
12,419 and 15,368 and that the city also suffers a significantly higher
rate of users going on to develop serious drug problems.

More than 1,000 children in the city are now thought to have one or both
parents receiving treatment for drug problems, while the number of children
taken into care last year rose by 25 per cent, bucking a national trend
downwards. Charles Gordon, the council leader, said the UKP15 million spent
in total by the council and health board on prevention and support
programmes meant about UKP1,000 was being spent on each addict annually,
but that amount was clearly inadequate.

"This is surely a case for government action," he said, "and we will be
asking the Scottish executive to put more resources into drug prevention
and treatment, rather than into drug enforcement."

Meanwhile, new research has revealed that the sleeping drug temazepam is
one of the major causes of a record number of drugs deaths in the west of
Scotland.

Although heroin remained the biggest killer, temazepam contributed to the
death of one in five people last year, and one in three who died from drugs
was also found to have taken the drug.

BBC TV's Frontline Scotland, broadcast last night, claimed the drug is
being smuggled from the continent, where the capsules can be bought over
the counter, and targeted at west of Scotland addicts.

The programme showed Interpol tracking a consignment of temazepam from the
manufacturing base in mainland Europe to a warehouse on the outskirts of
Glasgow.

Robert Hauschild, of Interpol in Lyon, France, said: "The production cost
of capsules of temazepam, for example in Switzerland or Italy, is two pence
per capsule and is sold in Glasgow for UKP1.50 or UKP2. It is a huge
problem.

"We know that in other parts of the world temazepam is also abused, but not
on the scale it is in Glasgow."

When temazepam was reclassified in 1996 and the gel form banned, only
tablets could be prescribed in Britain and the changes caused drug deaths
to fall dramatically.

Detective Inspector Barry Dougall, Strathclyde Police's drug co-ordinator,
said 74,000 capsules of temazepam were seized last year. "I think it's a
very small proportion of the temazepam on the streets, but I still think
it's significant."