DRUG POLICY IN SCOTLAND MUST BE CHANGED TO INCREASE ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Graeme Pearson, Director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement
Agency, knows well that a "fight against drugs" does not sit well
with Scotland's "Harm Reduction" drug policy, as the two concepts are
diametrically opposed. He is not the first to make the assumption
(July 1) that Scottish drug policy-makers want Scotland free from
drugs. The former MP, Michael Forsyth, who set up "Scotland Against
Drugs", made the same assumption to his cost. The policy is simply
"Limit the harm".

I have learnt, as Graeme Pearson must surely have done as a member of
the police force, through practical experience over the past 20
years, that there is no fight against drugs in Scotland. Maintenance
is the name of the deadly game. "Limit the harm" is a policy, and
close your eyes to the consequences for the helpless addict and the
tortured family, is the creed.

Please do not insult the hard-working voluntary sector, and those
good souls in the statutory sector who have laboured long and hard,
against the tide, over the past 20 years, by implying that all that
is necessary is that we all fight harder.

Change in drug policy is critical. Only then will we be fighting
against drugs together. The aim of abstinence, which is most drug
addicts' goal (see Professor Neil McKeganey's research) can then
become a reality and only then will the drug dealer have nobody to
sell his/her drugs to and the battle will be won.

It is encouraging to read that Graeme Pearson is fully aware that the
war against drugs is in danger of being fought among "experts" and
that this, if it were to happen, would "draw attention away from the
real issue, which is the misery of drug abuse affecting our communities".

I heartily agree with him in regard to these sentiments. These
"experts" cannot be allowed to perpetuate the chaos and pain. The
reality of the gross failure of drug policies is all around us, so
the "experts" have had their day. The time has come, and indeed is
long overdue, when we must listen to those who have suffered, and are
still suffering, and those who walk with them through it all.

Graeme Pearson comments that, since 2000, Health Service figures show
that the number of problematic drug users in Scotland has fallen from
56,000 to 51,000 and he suggests that something is happening that we
don't understand. Given that we are losing, on average, more than 300
known young people to drugs each year, I would have to suggest that
most, if not all, of these problematic drug users missing in the
statistics are dead. These are the much-loved sons and daughters of
devastated parents. No mystery there, only tears and broken hearts.

Maxie Richards

Bearsden