DRUGS WAR DEALT BLOW AS DEATHS MOUNT UP

Clamour for action after 19-year-old becomes one more chilling statistic

The government's drugs strategy was dealt a severe blow yesterday when
a 19-year-old man became the 51st person this year to die from an
overdose equaling the total number to have died from drug abuse in
the region last year.

Brian Gibb, described by his family as a former heroin and methadone
user, was found dead in his home in Renfield Street, Renfrew, on
Tuesday night. It is understood that Mr Gibb had taken a combination
of 2OOmg of the heroin substitute methadone and 28 Valium tablets.

Opposition politicians joined his family in calling for ministers to
rethink their drugs strategy in the light of the death toll.

Mr Gibb's uncle, Robert Adam, said last night: "If it was drugs
that killed Brian, I just hope some good can come out of his death in
that the authorities will sit up and take note of how many young
people are dying, because there are so few resources and so few
facilities to help them. The situation is getting worse, not better,
and addicts have so few people to turn to."

The increase in drugs deaths this year follows earlier dramatic drops
in fatalities. Strathclyde Police records show that 102 people died as
a result of drugs in 1995. That fell to 84 in 1996, and in 1997 there
were 51 deaths. But in the first six weeks of 1998 alone, 11 people
had died from drug abuse, compared with 11 deaths in the fist six
months of last year.

Police believe that a major factor in the rising number of drugs
deaths this year is the increased availability of "super-pure" heroin.
They suspect that a growing trend among users to smoke the drug,
rather than run what they perceive as higher risks associated with
injecting, has increased demand for heroin.

There are widely differing views on how to attack the drugs problem.
The Conservative government set up the Scotland Against Drugs agency
to mount high-profile anti-drugs campaigns. But Labour recently halved
the agency's budget, reorganised its ruling committee and made it
plain that it expected SAD to move away from big-budget campaigning,
and towards raising money for harm-prevention drugs agencies on the
ground.

Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, was strongly
criticised by the Mothers Against Drugs group in Cranhill, where a
13-year-old boy became Scotland's youngest heroin overdose victim
recently. The organisation claimed that the Government had abandoned
communities to drugs dealers.

But earlier this week, Mr McLeish stressed that drugs were a menace to
every part of society, and announced more money to fight the problem.

Last night, Mr McLeish said that the latest death was a "stark and
chilling reminder" of the drugs menace and said that more needs to be
done to combat the problem.

"Over the coming weeks and months, the Government will be stepping up
its war against drugs in Scotand. We have to do that in
partnership with the police and other organisations.

"Make no mistake, the figures from Strathclyde are alarming relative
to last year's statistics. But the key is that it confronts society
with what is now the major menace in Scotland today.

"We are well aware - and very concerned - about the increase in drugs
abuse in Scotland and its well-established links with crime. It is a
major concern and a major priority for the Government."

Roseanna Cunningham, the home affairs spokeswoman for the Scottish
National Party, said: "The drugs epidemic in Glasgow is dangerously
out of control and community efforts and Government efforts now have
to be directed towards a strategy that saves people's lives at the

point of crisis as well as discouraging drug abuse."

Jim Wallace, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: "Each
of these deaths is a personal tragedy. Let's not pretend there are
simple solutions to this. It will require a considerable community
effort and a range of different approaches to begin reversing this
trend.

"The key is twofold - to drive out the dealers but also to reach out
with appropriate help to those who are caught up in the spiral of drug
abuse."

Paul Cullen QC, the Scottish Conservative Party's home affairs
spokesman, said: "This is an absolutely appalling statistic. This
Governiment has been in office for 15 months now and still have not
come up with a strategy for tackling what has clearly become a
worsening problem."

David Macauley, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, said there
were more heroin users than ever in Scotland in general and Greater
Glasgow in particular. He said: "I have heard that there is a kilo and
a half of pure heroin on the streets in Glasgow. Interestingly, in
1982-83 the average heroin seized was 7 per cent pure. It is now
anywhere between 60 and 70 per cent pure.

"From a pharmaceutical perspective that means that in the early 1980s
the only way to get a high was to inject but now because of the high
levels of purity you are able to go for other routes of
administration, to put it clinically.

"So you can smoke it, rub it around your month or snort it like
cocaine. A 14-year-old girl in Aberdeen told me that the coolest and
chicest thing you could do was to snort heroin... All the evidence is
that users are getting younger and younger and use is increasing.

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"