DRUGS TOLL RISES

The Message Is Not Getting Across

Christmas will never be the same for the family of Kerry-Ann Kirk, the
youngest drugs victim in Scotland this year; nor for the families of
the six others who have died over the festive period after taking
drugs. The oldest of these victims was in his thirties; the others
were in their twenties. These deaths, as has been the case in so many
this year, are a terrible waste of unfulfilled life. The West of
Scotland, whose drug-related deaths are meticulously recorded by
Strathclyde Police, has a crisis on its hands. Only two years ago
Strathclyde had 51 drugs deaths. 1999's figures are only a little
short of three times that total. And the year is not out yet.

Strathclyde Police have not been sitting on their hands, as the
impressive figures for illicit drug seizures and drug-related
offences reported to procurator-fiscals confirm. But it is obvious
that highly dangerous drugs are readily available, and not just on the
streets. Just how malevolently insidious the drugs problem has become
is illustrated by the awful circumstances of Kerry-Ann's death, at an
adult-supervised Christmas party in a schoolfriend's home after
apparently taking methadone, the lethal synthetic opiate used to treat
heroin addicts. How is it that a 15-year-old with no record of drug
abuse came into contact with methadone? Methadone has claimed lives
over the years when it has been illegally available outside the
controlled environment of the doctor's surgery or the dispensary,
where it should be taken under supervision.The West of Scotland is
better than many places at keeping its availability under control, but
this tragic case suggests there are still lessons to be learned
(although it may have come from another part of the country). It is
painfully evident that the message about the dangers of drugs is not
getting across to the young and the impressionable who are most
vulnerable to their supposed attractions. But that is not to advocate
the hard-line, absolutist stance taken until recently by agencies such
as Scotland Against Drugs.

The grim statistics clearly show that too many young people have been
saying yes when they had been told to just say no. But neither is that
to endorse experimentation (although that appears almost to have been
the message from sections of the media that have been carrying
articles about so-called "designer drugs"). Drugs are a complex issue
and young people in particular need to be aware of just how dangerous
their use can be. But the message needs to be put across in a more
sophisticated way. There is surely a key role for the new Drug
Enforcement Agency in identifying an effective strategy, particularly
in relation to heroin and its killing cousin, methadone.