CALL FOR DRUGS RETHINK AFTER DEATH OF TODDLER

Addiction experts and politicians yesterday called on the Scottish
Executive to scrap its policy of prescribing methadone to drug addicts
after police confirmed a two-year-old boy had died from drinking the
liquid heroin substitute.

It is believed Derek Alexander Doran mistook the substance for a soft
drink. Police are still trying to establish how the child from the
East Lothian village of Elphinstone got hold of the secure bottle.

His parents, Lisa Dodds, 25, and Derek Doran, 22, who are methadone
users, have been questioned by detectives. Any decision on further
action rests with the procurator-fiscal at Haddington.

The tragedy happened on December 13 last year. The results of
toxicology tests confirming the cause of death were received last week
by Lothian and Borders Police.

Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Tories, urged the executive to
stop "parking" addicts on methadone. She said: "We're living in a
country where drug abuse has been allowed to eat away like a cancer at
the heart of our society."