SOARING USE OF HEROIN HITS ASIAN COMMUNITY

Erosion Of Family Values Blamed For Infiltration Of Drugs Among Young

A TASKFORCE launched to combat the drugs problem in Scotland's biggest city
yesterday revealed that heroin has infiltrated the Asian community for the
first time.

A five-year strategy published by the Glasgow Drug Action Team (DAT) warned
of an escalating number of young addicts within the city's ethnic
minorities. Elders in the Asian community in Glasgow confirmed the erosion
of traditional family values was resulting in more young people
experimenting with drugs.

The rising number of Asians taking drugs has prompted Glasgow City Council's
social work department to establish a specialist outreach unit. Ghazala Haq,
a full-time development worker at the Eshara drug project for Asians on the
south side of Glasgow, said: "Where drugs have been common in Scotland for
many years it is a new development that the Asian community is using them.

"Smoking heroin is the biggest problem. There are small pockets of people
injecting the drug, but the big problem is the smoking.

"There has also been an increase in recreational use of drugs such as
ecstasy and cannabis."

She said the project mainly dealt with Asian men between the age of 19 and 25.

The problem centres around the Pollokshields area of the city where the
majority of the city's 30,000 Asians live. Community leaders blamed the
increasing drug problem on the social and cultural tensions that Asian
teenagers face.

City councillor Bashir Maan, the chairman of StrathclydePolice Board, said:
"Asian kids are basically catching up with their peers.

"The problem has not touched the Asian community as much as other sections
of society because of the traditions of close-knit families, respect for
elders and family discipline. Asian children would not have got involved in
drugs in the past.

"That has changed, however. The traditional family ties are being broken
down and the drug problem has followed."

Naren Sood, the secretary of the Scottish Asian Action Committee, agreed
that cultural changes were resulting in the increased drug use.

"There is a greater pressure on Asian youths to follow peer pressure to try
to fit in. As a result they take greater risks to prove themselves to their
peers so they are more and more likely to be drawn into drugs."

The worrying development in the ongoing drugs problem in Scotland was
revealed at the launch of the DAT strategy for tackling the drug problem in
Glasgow.

The taskforce is run by Greater Glasgow Health Board and will fund work
aimed at curbing the number of young people trying drugs, and helping users
kick the habit.

The number of drugs deaths in Strathclyde to date this year is 94 and is on
course to far exceed last year's total of 100 deaths.

According to the DAT report there are 7,000 injecting heroin addicts in the
greater Glasgow area who spend A3160 million a year on their drug habit.
The majority of the money spent on drugs comes from crime.

Launching the strategy in Glasgow yesterday Angus MacKay, the deputy justice
minister who also chairs the Scottish executive's drugs committee, said that
it provided a partnership approach to dealing with the drugs problem.

He said: "Tackling drugs is about co-ordinated, concerted and sustained
action across all areas."

A high-powered agency set up to tackle drug crime in Scotland could be in
operation early next year.

Scottish police chiefs are already considering how the Scottish Drugs
Enforcement Agency will be structured, although it is known the body will
work alongside the Scottish Crime Squad and existing police forces. Mr
MacKay said the agency would have its own chief executive and that more than
A34m had already been earmarked to fund the initiative.

"We expect that broad agreement on the structure of the agency will be
reached by Christmas and we very much hope that the agency itself will be up
and running in the early part of next year," Mr MacKay said.