SCOTLAND IS 'LOSING' WAR ON DRUGS

A leading Scottish drugs official believes that Scotland can never
win the fight against illegal substances.

Tom Wood, chairman of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug
Action Teams, said education and deterrence should take priority over
enforcement.

"The message has to be more sophisticated than 'just say no' because
that simple message doesn't work," he said.

However, the Scottish Executive said supply chains had to be tackled.

Scotland has one of the worst drug problems in Europe, with an
estimated 50,000 addicts.

Latterly I have become more and more convinced that it was never a
war we could win Tom Wood SAADAT

Mr Wood is a former police deputy chief constable and his
organisation advises the executive on future policy.

"I spent much of my police career fighting the drugs war and there
was no-one keener than me to fight it," he told the Scotland on
Sunday newspaper.

"But latterly I have become more and more convinced that it was never
a war we could win.

"We can never as a nation be drug-free. No nation can, so we must accept that.

"For young people who have already said 'yes', who live in families
and communities where everybody says 'yes', we have to recognise that
the battle is long lost."

He said it had to be accepted that decades of enforcement policies
being prioritised had not been successful and instead the focus
should switch to winning the arguments to persuade youngsters that
"drugs are best avoided".

But an spokesman said: "We have a very clear policy on drugs, which
is to balance the need to tackle supply and challenge demand.

"They have to go hand-in-hand and we make no apology for that."

Statistics released by the executive last week showed that there were
548 children and young people under the age of 16 and under coming
forward for treatment in 2004-05.

Stewart Stevenson, drugs spokesman for the SNP, told the BBC's
Politics Show, it was time for a high level debate about the way forward.

"It's time for a drugs summit that brings together the professionals
with competing views, allows us to lay on the table quite challenging
policy suggestions and look at the second and third level effects of
implementing them," he said.

"If Jack McConnell won't do that I think he can be absolutely certain
an SNP government, led by Alex Salmond next year, is very likely to
make that an earlier priority."

Former Conservative leader David McLetchie told the programme: "I
think any kind of discussion would be well informed by having some
kind of independent chairman and independent research support.

"There can be far too many conflicting claims and competing factions.

"We need to have somebody that sits above that and brings elements
together but is capable of producing some kind of objective judgement
to help us map a way forward."