HEROIN: IS GIVING IT FREE TO ADDICTS THE ANSWER?

The Problem: By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor

COMIC Ben Elton's appearance before the Scottish parliament's
cross-party group on drugs and alcohol last week was no laughing
matter. The writer, who made a career from deriding politicians, was
in Edinburgh to appeal to MSPs about the UK's drugs crisis. His
solution was simple: "To my mind, the logical answer is legalisation."

Elton's call, while unlikely to be heeded, was welcomed by
parliamentarians who were looking for answers, particularly on
Scotland's heroin problem. The figures on this particular drug are
startling. In a country of five million people, Scotland caters for
50,000 addicts and writes out half a million methadone prescription
scripts every year. In Strathclyde, police recently revealed a 70%
hike in drug-related deaths.

Part of the media's renewed interest in heroin is the effect it has
on family members. Earlier this year, it was reported that an
11-year-old girl, whose parents were addicts, collapsed at school
after smoking the class A drug. This was followed by revelations that
two-year-old Derek Doran died after drinking methadone.

The increased media coverage on heroin and methadone coincided with
varied contributions inside the parliament that floated authoritarian
and libertarian ideas.

Conservative leader Annabel Goldie, whose party produced the "Just
Say No" slogan in the mid-1990s, criticised harm reduction measures
earlier this year and instead backed abstinence. In parliament she
said: "We need a sea change in our attitude to drug abuse so that
instead of managing drug addictions we are helping addicts become drug-free.

"Surely that must start with a new attitude towards the resources
deployed towards drugs rehabilitation places."

A more surprising contribution came from Labour MSP Duncan McNeil,
whose concern was with the children of addicts, rather than the users
themselves. His call for putting oral contraceptives in methadone,
while dismissed as not a serious option, raised issues about the
welfare of youngsters caught in the crossfire.

Such comments formed the background to Elton's visit last week. The
left-winger, who was invited to Scotland by a church minister in
Fraserburgh, complained that an old woman had to walk a shorter
distance these days to get a bag of smack than a bag of tea. Even so,
he said the current system wasn't working: "I don't take illegal
drugs. I don't want my children to take drugs. But I don't want them
to live in a violent, ghettoised society."

However, while calls for abstinence, spiked methadone and
legalisation confirm that Scotland is beginning to talk about
intractable problems, it does not necessarily follow that the country
is any closer to manageable solutions.

Elton's call, for instance, can be ruled out simply because Holyrood
is powerless to legislate on the supply of drugs, which is a reserved
issue. McNeil's demand has been ruled out and Goldie's plan harks
back to an age when politicians issued drugs warnings while wearing
baseball caps.

The gap between debate and action becomes wider in the context of a
looming Holyrood election. More cash for heroin addicts is unlikely
to be in any mainstream party's manifesto; it is also implausible to
imagine increased resources for detox centres as a priority in the
next Executive spending review.

As Elton implied from his speech, the problem for those people
advocating a more liberal approach is the nervousness of politicians.
In the past three months, MSPs have been moving towards a counter-
revolution, rather than a radical rethink of the current approach on
heroin. Even Nationalist MSP Stewart Stevenson, who helped bring the
comedian to Holyrood, is not prepared to think the unthinkable:
"Ben's analysis is spot on, but even he is admitting that if you
decriminalise illegal drugs, the number of addicts would rise. I'm
just not prepared to contemplate that. It simply wouldn't be the way
to go forward at all," he said.

The Executive, which admits it has more to do to address heroin
addiction, is stuck midway between the liberal and conservative
positions. Their "Know the Score" plan, while based on harm
reduction, does not flirt with the sort of policies, such as
prescribing the drug, that are being developed in Germany. Its
"Hidden Harm" strategy, although welcomed by most political parties,
was written amid a backdrop of tabloid hysteria.

In this regard, Holyrood's contribution to the drugs debate could be
seen as opening people's minds to ideas that are counterproductive.
While local authorities and drugs agencies pilot projects that supply
addicts with overdose resuscitation kits, MSPs urge addicts to
exercise greater willpower. Shooting rooms and prescribed heroin do
not seem like ideas that are about to be embraced in Edinburgh.