HEROIN 'TIDAL WAVE' HITS FIFE

Drugs workers plead for more resources as addiction climbs to inner-city
Glasgow levels

HEROIN abuse in Fife is reaching crisis point with schoolchildren smoking
the drug in the streets, and levels of regular injectors now rivalling
those of inner-city Glasgow.

Drugs workers are warning that they are failing to cope with a tidal wave
of need, made worse by the fact that there are neither detoxification nor
rehabilitation facilities in the region.

They fear an epidemic of HIV if the problem goes untackled.

Grassroots workers chose yesterday to speak out, in defiance of warnings
not to go public with their fears, on the eve of today's drugs conference
chaired by the Chief Constable of Fife and opened by the Fife MP and
Scottish home affairs minister, Henry McLeish.

Last night their worries about Fife's developing heroin crisis were backed
by David Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

"The levels of heroin addiction in Fife are as bad as in inner-city
Glasgow, but the problem is made far worse by the lack of services in the
area," said Mr Liddell.

"The health board and the local drugs action team are taking the problem
very seriously, but lack of resources is stopping them from tackling it
effectively."

Addicts told 'The Scotsman' how heroin has moved into Fife towns and
villages in the last 18 months. Despite higher police seizures, heroin is
so common that the street price has fallen from UKP90 to UKP65 per gramme.

In Glenrothes, in Mr McLeish's constituency, the number of heroin dealers
has risen from none to six in the space of two years, addicts claim. At the
same time the town's needle exchange has closed down.

ln Kirkcaldy, where the needle exchange is to close within ten days, some
children smoke heroin instead of turning to under-age drinking. A
15-year-old was hospitalised on Thesday night after an overdose.

"There is so much heroin in the town that in the big estates they call from
flat to flat: 'Have you got any?'" said a Kirkcaldy couple who are
long-term heroin, addicts. "We have people come round here so desperate to
get needles they take away our dirty needles to share.

"Dealers only seem to sell heroin now, they don't bother with hash or speed
like when we were young. Some dealers only sell in UKP20 quantities but
others will sell in UKP2 bags which even children can afford."

Drugs workers warn of the risk of an epidemic of HIV, yet reforms to the
frontline health services are still on the drawing board.

Fife Health Board spends UKP500,000 a year on drug services for its 350,000
population, a tiny fraction of the UKP4 million spent in Edinburgh where
the population is only 100,000 higher. Many GPs refuse to prescribe
methadone, and three needle exchange services have closed or are closing.

A mother in Levenmouth yesterday told how her heroin- addicted son had
attempted suicide in despair at the lack of official help for him to get
off heroin,

"The official attitude is that no-one wants to do anything to help the
addicts," said the mother, whose own health is failing under the strain.

A heroin-addicted mother said she and her partner had contemplated suicide
after battling for 18 months to get a methadone prescription that would
allow them to stop shoplifting to feed their need for heroin.

Dr James Alcock, the chairman of the Fife local medical committee, said
that many GPs did not prescribe methadone because users were deceitful and
abusive, causing disturbances in their surgeries and upsetting other
patients. He called for a central prescribing service to prescribe
methadone to addicts to take the pressure off Gps.

The heroin boom has caused Fife drugs deaths to more than double last year
to 20, compared to 54 deaths in the whole of Strathclyde.

Oonagh Aitken, the chairman of the multi-agency Fife Drugs Action Team,
said the team was due to meet Mr Mcleish this morning to discuss the
increase in drug abuse in Fife.

"We are very much aware of the increase in heroin abuse in Fife and are
trying a number of approaches to tackle these problems. There dues so be a
lot of inexpensive heroin available in Fife," said Mrs Aitken.

A Scottish Office spokeswoman said Fife would benefit from extra funding to
educate schoolchildren about the dangers of heroin, announced on 7 October.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson