WE'RE FAILING OUR DRUG KIDS

SNP Lead Attack On Parliament's Policy

THE SNP last night slammed the Government's provision of treatment for
young drug users.

The attack came after a survey found services for youngsters on drugs was
"patchy" or "non-existent".

SNP deputy shadow Parliament minister Richard Lochhead said: "This
government report shows the Executive is once again failing Scotland's
children and young people."

The survey by the Executive's Effective Interventions Unit warned Drug
Action Teams, set up to tackle the growing drug problem, were often unaware
of services in their own area.

And in large areas of Scotland - mainly rural - there is no drug-related
treatment.

It showed youngsters as young as 11 were involved in multi-drug use,
ranging from cannabis, often combined with alcohol, to smoking or injecting
heroin on a daily basis.

The EIU report said: "Current services exist to a great extent in isolation
from each other; DAT officers may not be familiar with details of services,
and services within a DAT area or across DAT boundaries may have only
limited contact with each other."

The survey showed more than 400 children and more than 800 young people,
aged 16 to 18, had used the services in the 12 months to autumn 2001. The
report said there were 42 services within Scotland, but provision was
unevenly distributed.

And it warned there is no specialist residential rehabilitation in
Scotland, although services in England had been used.

Last night, Lochhead said: "This report proves what the SNP has been saying
for a long time, that the provision of drug treatment for young people is
patchy at best, and non-existent in the worst-served areas."

But the Scottish Executive accused the SNP MSP of "quoting rather
selectively" from the report.

A spokeswoman said : "We accept there is an uneven distribution of
services, but the report also makes clear it is a rapidly developing area
of provision, with the Executive introducing such initiatives as Changing
Children's Services, which we are funding with UKP20million over next three
years.