Grampian in drugs fightback
Health board plan focuses on controlling methadone supplies and a united
antidrug agency by FRANK URQUHART

GRAMPIAN Health Board yesterday unveiled its plan to begin the fightback
against the scourge of heroin addiction and hard drug abuse which is
sweeping the northeast of Scotland.

The board's campaign will be spearheaded by a drive to combat the
mounting toll of drugrelated deaths in the area by trying to stop
legallyprescribed doses of the heroin substitute, methadone, getting on
to the black market.

Overdoses of methadone were last year responsible for twothirds of the
32 drug related deaths in the northeast. Three of the five drugrelated
deaths in Grampian last month were also due to methadone poisoning.

Some addicts are known to be walking out of pharmacists' shops with two
weeks' supplies of the lethal synthetic opiate which they are selling on
the street, making methadone the "drug of choice" in many parts of the
northeast.

The board is now likely to follow Glasgow's lead in making it mandatory
for all registered addicts to be given daily doses of methadone under
strict supervision. And the board is also planning for the first time to
restrict the number of GPs who can prescribe the heroin substitute.

A series of reports commissioned by the board has also called for the
establishment of a single drug addiction service for the area and an end
to the friction between the key agencies dealing with the problem.

Researchers at the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University
have told the board that differences in the core philosophies between
harm minimisation and drug abstinence agencies are a major obstacle to
progress. Clashes of personalities and differing attitudes towards drug
misuse and addicts have also hampered cooperation between the drug
misuse services.

Grampian has the highest rate of heroin addiction of any health board
area in Scotland. Children as young as 13 are injecting the drug. And
heroin abuse is believed to be as prevalent in middleclass suburbs in
Aberdeen as in any of the city's housing schemes.

Frank Hartnett, the board's general manager, admitted yesterday he was
disturbed by the scale of the problem facing the statutory authorities.
It has been estimated that UKP10 million of public money is already being
diverted each year to deal with the growing crisis.

Mr Hartnett said he was particularly concerned about the number of drug
related deaths and the role which methadone appeared to have played in
the majority of the fatalities. "It really isn't helpful if a drug
misuser can obtain two weeks supply at one go. Obviously they can go out
and sell large quantities on the street to the point where methadone has
become the drug of choice in some parts of Grampian.

"The first and significant action that the board has already started to
take is to control the use of methadone."

Mr Hartnett said he was also concerned about the abuse of heroin across
class boundaries and its increasing use by young teenagers, some only 13
years of age. Almost 30 per cent of opiate users in Grampian are in
employment more than three times the figure for the rest of Scotland.

Mr Hartnett said: "We believe that, because of the relative affluence of
Aberdeen, that drug dealers have targeted the city and there is probably
as big a middle class usage of serious drugs like heroin and cocaine as
there is in the deprived areas of the city.

"I believe that large numbers of middle class people are using drugs but
are not falling into the hands of the statutory authorities hands
because they are not committing crime to feed their habit and probably
because they understand drugs better and are limiting their doses."

The board, he said, was determined to use the evidence which had been
gathered to respond in a firm and decisive way.

Mr Hartnett stressed: "A solution to this problem is all agencies
working together and what these reports show is that the agencies have
not been working together."

Grampian, he said, was disadvantaged under the Scottish Office formula
for drugsrelated funding, established ten years ago on the basis of HIV
and AIDS cases in each health board area. The formula has resulted in
neighbouring Tayside getting five times as much cash from the Government
and Highland Health Board twice the Grampian allocation.

"The lack of cash is affecting our ability to deal with problem," Mr
Hartnett said.