TWO MORE DEATHS ADD TO DRUGS TOLL

Strathclyde Total For 1999 Increases To Record 148 After Man Is Found
Dead In His Room At Hostel For Homeless

THE YEAR in which Strathclyde recorded its highest number of
drug-related fatalities, ended yesterday with the deaths of two more
people attributed to drug abuse.

The death of Brian Miller, 33, at a hostel for the homeless in
Glasgow, brought to 148 the total number of people in the region who
died in 1999 as a result of drug misuse.

An unnamed man, who died in October, was yesterday confirmed in a
toxicology report as the region's 147th drugs victim.

Last year's drugs death toll showed a 48 per cent increase on the
figure for 1998 when 100 people died as a result of drug misuse.

Mr Miller was found dead in his room at Peter McCann House, a hostel
for single men in Kyle Street, Glasgow, in the early hours of yesterday.

Staff at the shelter, which is run by Glasgow City Council, refused to
comment on the circumstances of his death or reveal personal details
about Mr Miller.

Campaigners said the death highlighted the need for hostels where drug
and alcohol abuse were not accepted on the premises.

Lorna Clark, a spokeswoman for Shelter, the campaign for homeless
people, said that drug-taking was a major problem in a number of
hostels, although she did not suggest that such practices were
accepted by staff at Peter McCann House.

She said, however, that some housing workers feared hostel staff
turned a blind eye to substance abuse, a move which placed temptation
in the way of homeless people attempting to recover from drug and
alcohol addiction.

Ms Clark said: "It may be that some staff are turning a blind eye,
because of fear of intimidation by drug users, or for other reasons.

"For an addict who is trying to get off drugs it can be very difficult
to be in a hostel where this is going on and there is a need to ensure
there are some hostels where this is not acceptable.

"However, there is also a need for hostels where alcohol and drugs can
be used, if we are to meet the different needs of all homeless people.

"Obviously homeless people are particularly vulnerable to all kinds of
problems such as drug abuse and one death from drugs is a death too
many.

"Shelter has said for some time now that there are problems with some
hostels, and this is an issue that the Government must look at very
closely when it is tackling the homelessness problem."

Alistair Ramsay, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, said Mr
Miller's death highlighted the particular vulnerability of homeless
people to substance abuse.

He said: "Homeless people may well not have employment, they may not
have families or social support, and for these people it may be
particularly difficult to avoid drug abuse and to recover from addiction.

"Recent research shows that many young people with drug problems have
said that they do not really care whether they live or die, which is a
terrible indictment of our society, and we have to look at the
reason's behind drug-taking habits if we are to tackle the problem in
the long-term."

The two latest cases in Strathclyde followed the deaths of seven
people in Scotland over the Christmas holiday weekend, a number which
drugs agencies have described as unusually high.

Kerry-Ann Kirk, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, became Scotland's youngest
drugs victim of 1999 when she died after taking an overdose of
methadone at a Christmas party at Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, last
Sunday.

Experts have warned that the death toll could rise as drug dealers
have hoarded supplies in anticipation of a surge in demand at Hogmanay.

Last year's highest death toll comes despite what John Orr, the Chief
Constable of Strathclyde Police, has described as a year of
"outstanding and unprecedented seizures and detections" of drugs.

Mr Orr said that the force had reported 17 people to the
procurator-fiscal in relation to 15 of the 146 deaths. He called for
anyone who witnessed drug misuse to report it, even if it involved
friends or relatives.

A total of 276 people died of drug abuse in Scotland in 1998, compared
to 263 in 1997.

A spokesman for the Scottish executive said yesterday that no official
figures for Scotland's drugs death toll for 1999 were yet available.

The spokesman added: "We have to wait for inquiries into all the
deaths to be completed, and will then receive an official figure from
the registrar general as to how many were drug-related."