OVERDOSES SIGN OF HARD TIMES FOR GLASGOW

GLASGOW, Scotland - Hugh McCartney, 23, died alone and in despair in a
derelict, boarded-up public-housing project scheduled for demolition
in one of Glasgow's most deprived neighborhoods.

He had known that drugs would kill him someday. In his wallet, police
found a note, clearly intended for his family, that he had kept there
for some time: "Don't feel guilty, just feel happy I am not putting
myself through any more punishment."

McCartney was the 107th person to die of a drug overdose this year in
Strathclyde, a Scottish region with a population of 2 million that
includes Glasgow. In the two weeks since, the number has risen to 111
and by year's end is expected to total between 120 and 130, well over
10 percent of all drug deaths in Britain.

One thing that distinguished McCartney from the 110 other victims, and
ensured him publicity they did not get, was that he was the son of a
British Cabinet Office minister, Ian McCartney. His parents were
divorced when he was 13, and his descent into drugs began not long
thereafter.

A city on the skids

His death in late September served to draw national attention to the
depths of despair and hopelessness among young people in Glasgow, a
city that lived off its powerful shipbuilding, steel and coal
industries and has never fully recovered from their collapse 20 years
ago.

Sixty-three of the suicides this year have occurred in Glasgow, a city
of 600,000, and the year-end toll is expected to be about 70.

According to drug experts, many of Glasgow's young seek oblivion such
as they have not encountered elsewhere. Heroin is their drug of
choice, but in contrast with most other British drug users, many of
them combine heroin with tranquilizers in an apparent attempt to draw
closer to a state of unconsciousness.

Experts say the combination can shut down the part of the brain that
controls breathing, and this accounts for many of the deaths.

Dr. Tom Gilhooly is a physician who works closely with addicts in
rundown east Glasgow, block after block of Gothic gloom, where
shopping centers are fortified and security guards are trained to spot
pasty-faced, emaciated junkies and block their way.

Gilhooly said he believed the death figures actually understate the
problem. "We don't record as drug-related the deaths of those who hang
themselves or die of infections, but it's a significant number -
probably as much again as the official figures," he said.

Focus called unfair

Some authorities argue that the focus on Glasgow is unfair and is due
largely to the fact that it is more open about its drug problem than
other cities, compiling and publishing statistics that many do not.

Dr. Lawrence Gruer of the Greater Glasgow Health Board, one of the
country's leading drug authorities, cites figures to show that the
rundown English seaside resort of Brighton has a much higher death
rate.

"But if Glasgow has a bigger problem than many parts of Britain, it is
because half of the people here live in deprived areas, and no other
city has such a high proportion," he said.

Glasgow's unemployment rate is 19.5 percent, and in poor areas it is
several times that. Glasgow residents have a 20 percent higher risk of
early death from any cause than other Scots. In the most deprived
areas, people are 200 times more likely to have to go to a hospital
than those in more affluent neighborhoods. Sixty-seven percent of
Glasgow residents have no car.

Andrew Horne, director of the Glasgow Drugs Crisis Center, has in his
office a large cardboard box filled with the "dead files" of former
clients. "There are some people you cannot save," he said. "But there
is a sense with each one that we have failed."

Horne spent 13 years working in drug programs in Dublin and London
before coming to Glasgow and said he was "fairly shocked" by what he
found.

"I think Glasgow is very unusual," he said. "When somebody died in
London, it was a big deal. Why does one city have this desire to be
more than just stoned? It's about pushing the boundaries toward
unconsciousness."

Who they are

Gilhooly said the vast majority of women addicts are unmarried but
have as many as four or five children.

There are an estimated 10,000 drug users in Glasgow. Dr. Gruer said
that suggests there are at least 10,000 children growing up with
parents who are addicts.

Horne puts drug abusers in three categories: 10 percent who are "young
and stupid," failing to grasp the implications of what they are doing;
10 percent who are consciously suicidal and 80 percent who just don't
care what happens to them.

"The typical addict has zero self-esteem," he said. "He or she is
unemployed, and probably sleeping rough (living outdoors) or in a
hostel. The women are likely to be into prostitution. Many addicts
have had their children put into foster care and they owe money to
dealers and money lenders. . . . You can see why they don't care."

Before drugs became a serious problem here about 20 years ago, Glasgow
was notorious for alcoholism - and still is. The drug users of today,
Horne said, are the children of those who used to drink themselves
into oblivion.

Now he fears that drug users are spawning future addicts. "When I see
clients arrive with children, I see the clients of tomorrow," he said.

"That wasn't the case 20 years ago," he said. "We find these children
have serious behavioral problems in school, as well as a big problem
of truancy, and some of them have to be taken into care."

Detective Superintendent Barry Dougall, head of the Strathclyde police
drugs squad, said the average drug user commits 28 crimes a month.

The police estimate 50 percent to 60 percent of thefts and burglaries
are directly attributable to drugs. Glasgow's crime rate in these
categories has been falling in recent years, and police attribute that
to the methadone program.

Yet Glasgow, like other cities around the world, is a long way from
solving its drug problem.

"What we are doing," Horne said, "is putting a Band-Aid on a severed
arm."