AMPHETAMINE GROWTH MAY RIVAL HEROIN THREAT

A RISE in the popularity of amphetamines among drug users could lead to a
public health risk that would rival the threat posed by heroin in the
1980s, a leading drugs worker warned yesterday.

Rowdy Yates, a member of the Scottish Drugs Training Project at Stirling
University, warned that increasing numbers of users are injecting the drug
and called for a complete rethink to ensure that services offered to heroin
addicts are taken up by other users.

Mr Yates, who was speaking to the fourth annual meeting of Crew 2000, an
Edinburgh harm prevention group, said: "Drugs strategies have simply missed
the target for various reasons, mainly because they don't know what's
happening on the ground."

He said that amphetamine users do not use drugs resources such as needle
exchanges because they think they are for "junkies".

Apart from publicity campaigns on the dangers of ecstasy, drugs policy has
always focused on opiates and cocaine. Stimulant use had been virtually
ignored for decades, he alleged.

Official figures show that amphetamines, commonly known as speed, are the
second most widely used illegal drug in Britain after cannabis.

Speed is taken to increase alertness but can induce the symptoms or
paranoid schizophrenia if used over long periods, and can be fatal.

Mr Yates criticised the level of awareness of amphetamines: "I have seen
every Drug Action Team strategy in Scotland and not one of them says that
amphetamine use is a particular problem."

He said drug workers had told him that amphetamines are being injected by
increasing numbers of people.

However, Dr Bob Scott, of Greater Glasgow Health Board, maintained that the
targeting of drugs resources was about right.

He said that information from health hoard clients suggested injecting had
declined since a peak in the early 1990s and added. "In numerical terms,
the number of amphetamine overdoses is very small, as a result of how the
drug is generally used."

A spokesman for Edinburgh and Lothian Health Board said that it was unaware
of any significant increase in injecting amphetamines in the area.

A Scottish Office spokesman said: "The Government will consider any
proposals for research into areas that are felt to need more examination."

At the same meeting, a leading dance event organiser warned that shifting
tastes in dance music could be putting many younger people at risk.

Fraser Maclntyre, who ran the Hanger 13 club in Ayr, which closed in 1994
after the deaths of three people who had taken ecstasy, said that there is
a growing trend for parties at the homes of teenagers where security and
health staff are not available.

Mr Maclntyre, who now organises monthly events at Ingliston, near
Edinburgh, said: "If someone has a problem at an organised event, we can at
least make sure that they get to hospital quickly. But if it's at someone's
home, or an unofficial event, the paranoia about contacting the authorities
can prevent that from happeniug."

Meanwhile, Crew 2000 said its workload had doubled in 12 months, as 4,000
young people visited its drop-in centre.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)