ADDICTS TO BE GIVEN PERSONAL SUPPLY OF ANTI-OVERDOSE DRUG

Heroin: Controversial Lifesaving Plan

Projects Aim To Cut Rising Death Toll By Making Naloxone Treatment
More Readily Available

Heroin addicts, their families, and friends are to be issued with
overdose resuscitation kits under radical new plans to reverse the
rising toll of drug deaths in Scotland.

The Sunday Herald can reveal proposals for two pilot projects to give
users a personal supply of Naloxone and train them to inject other
dying addicts with the anti-overdose drug.

The controversial trials, to run separately in Glasgow and
Lanarkshire, come as Strathclyde Police revealed a 70per cent
increase in the number of drugrelated deaths in the region.

In the first four-and-a-half months of this year, the force has
investigated 82 fatalities, up from 48 for the same period in 2005.
In Scotland last year, there were 264 drug-related deaths.

Under the Glasgow pilot, to go before the city council next month for
approval, a group of high-risk drug users would be given "increased
access" to Naloxone.

Although there are plans for addicts to access the drug through the
city's addiction teams and drug crisis centres, most controversially,
addicts and their families would be given their own "personal supply
to take home" to use in the event of an overdose.

Talks have already begun with support groups, including around 60
families of addicts, to have them trained to use the injection.

Supporters hope that, if successful, the [GBP]20,000 pilot - to run
for six months - would be rolled out to combat drug deaths across Scotland.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Herald has learned that a two-month trial with
Naloxone is already under way in Lanarkshire. The pilot - involving
Lanarkshire's Alcohol and Drugs Action Team (ADAT), NHS Lanarkshire,
the Scottish Drugs Forum and the Scottish Ambulance Service - will
also involve giving addicts direct access to Naloxone injections.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is providing training on how to
administer the heroin antidote, which is provided in ready-assembled syringes.

This week, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is set to rule on whether
the pilot can make the drug available to the family and friends of
addicts. If permission is granted, it will be the first time anywhere
in the UK that Naloxone has been made available in this way.

Colin Sloey, chairman of Lanarkshire ADAT, said: "Many drug-related
deaths are preventable if treatment is available quickly and at the
scene. This pilot scheme has the potential to save lives that could
otherwise be needlessly lost to drug use."

Currently, Naloxone, an opiate antagonist, can only be administered
by trained medical staff. However, supporters say that, as the drug
can be injected into the muscle and does not need to be put into a
vein, it should be made available to the public.

In the US, according to drug experts, a scheme in San Francisco to
issue Naloxone to addicts has prevented 116 drug deaths since it began in 2003.

Another programme in Chicago has also been claimed to be a success.

In Scotland, where it is estimated there are now more than 50,000
heroin users, calls for addicts to be issued with Naloxone so they
can treat other drug users is growing.

Over this month, Strathclyde Police sources say they have gathered
intelligence that criminal gangs are flooding Glasgow with
increasingly pure street heroin in an attempt to reclaim the drugs
market that has seen addicts move to taking cheaper, high-quality
powdered and crack cocaine. They warn that as the heroin gangs
attempt to take control of the city, more drug deaths are likely to be seen.

Glasgow's addiction teams have already begun training staff, carers
and addicts on resuscitation techniques and emergency first aid to
prevent deaths.

But the issuing of Naloxone is a radical departure from what has been
tried before. Last night, as supporters claimed the move would save
lives, critics dismissed Naloxone as offering a a safety net to
addicts which they claim will simply encourage further drug use.

David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, described the
proposed pilots as "excellent examples of the kind of innovative
approaches which experts in the field say are absolutely necessary if
we are to reduce the number of deaths among drugs users who are
particularly at risk of overdose".

Ellen Donnelly, acting chair of the Scottish Network of Families
Affected by Drugs, which has been approached to take part, said:
"It's great that they are doing this. I'm sure it would be welcomed
by all parents, if they thought this could save the life of their son
or daughter."

And Glasgow councillor Elaine McDougall said: "If one life is saved
then it will be worth it."

However, Bill Aitken, Glasgow MSP and a former Tory justice
spokesman, said: "I am far from satisfied that this is a safe procedure.

"Am I naive in thinking that the message that should go out is 'stay
off drugs'? It should not be one that says if you self-harm, help is at hand."

Stewart Stevenson, SNP deputy justice spokesman, welcomed the trials,
but added: "We must be very careful to couple that with appropriate
counselling and support to ensure that users do realise that this is
not a substitute for abstinence."

A Scottish Executive spokesman said it would follow the pilots "with
interest ".

Need To Know

The Facts --Two controversial pilot schemes giving drug addicts
access at home to the heroin antidote, Naloxone, for the first time
are to be launched in Scotland.

Background -- Amid a backdrop of rising heroin deaths, high-risk
groups are to receive their own "personal supply" of the drug. Under
the schemes, the moment a drug user has an overdose reaction, a
friend or the user themselves can inject Naloxone into the victim's
leg or shoulder.

Once injected, Naloxone, a nonaddictive drug that has no high, sends
victims into an instant acute withdrawal.

Need To Know More

www. sdf. org. uk Scottish Drugs Forum.

www. knowthe score. info Scottish Executive drugs information.