Special Report - Part Two of Five: Losing The War On Drugs

A PARENT'S STORY

Pensions Minister Ian McCartney Talks For The First Time About Why He
Believes The Way We Deal With Addicts Sentenced His Son To Death

Pain and loss take no account of position: they visit the great and the
good as well as the poor and humble. Like all the parents I've spoken to
who have lost their children to drugs, Ian McCartney has seen where the
system has failed and worked out what we can do to fix it. The only
difference is that he is a government minister and has the power to put his
thoughts into action. When his son Hugh died in September 1999, he was a
Cabinet Office minister. Currently he is minister for pensions.

This is the first time McCartney has talked publicly about the death of his
son, but he holds little back. 'My son's death was down to a minuscule
amount of heroin,' he says, his hands clasped in his lap. 'He had been in
jail for a short period -- he'd been involved in petty crime to feed his
habit. Nobody thought he'd go to jail, but he did. He wasn't prepared for
the experience. My son required appropriate medical intervention, not an
inappropriate prison sentence.

'When he walked into prison, he was asked if he'd taken any drugs. He
answered honestly and said yes -- he'd taken a hit of heroin a few hours
before. This immediately disbarred him from continuing on his methadone
programme. He was left with effectively no medical care.

'He went through physical and mental anguish -- unsupported through cold
turkey, and being bullied by whoever was distributing drugs in the jail.
Hugh was in jail for two months and there were fears he might hurt himself.
I've been quite aggressive about our prison culture.

'There was no support system and so when he was released he couldn't get
back on a methadone programme and he returned to heroin. By this time, his
tolerance to smack was way down. He died just a few days later. It wasn't a
prison sentence he got, it was a death sentence. He was just a young man
with a problem, not a problem young man. There is no sense to the current
system. Going to jail harmed my son and did nothing to address the cause of
crime.

'Hugh's story is the pattern for many drug users. If they weren't jailed
and got medical treatment these kids could recapture their dreams in spite
of the silly mistakes of their youth. For many drug users, prison is not
the place for them. I'm not saying the crimes are acceptable, but the
system needs to realise it can't stop crime without getting people off
drugs. To simply jail people is wrong and it's short-termism. What remains
behind are more drug deaths and the unhappiness of families like my own.

'We forget the effects of a drug death on families. One of the worst
aspects is how you are dealt with by the hospitals and officialdom. They
have specific policies surrounding the deaths of drug users because of
risks from HIV and hepatitis C. Because of these rules, I wasn't allowed to
touch my son. I had to identify his body on a video screen. I pleaded with
them to let me touch him, but they wouldn't. In the end they let me stand
beside him as long as I wore a white medical jumpsuit and a hat. I stood by
him in the morgue while somebody stood beside me making sure I didn't hold
him. I couldn't even touch him with gloves on. That's symbolic of us as a
society. We don't see the person, the child -- we see the addict.

'Hugh stumbled into drugs. He tried it, moved to the east end of Glasgow,
where the pigeons in the street can buy smack, and by the time he wanted
out of it, it was too late and no-one would help. It became his sole raison
d' tre. The existence of addicts becomes very chaotic and they are
motivated only by getting drugs to get through the day.

'Hugh desperately wanted to get off drugs but there was no programme to
stabilise his drug use. By then Glasgow City Council had placed him in a
flat that was meant to be demolished. He was an addict, so they couldn't
have cared less. No-one should have to be treated like that.'

McCartney makes no secret of his anger and frustration. 'I'm full of 'if
onlys' and if I'm not careful that could destroy me, even though it would
never bring Hugh back. Since I was 15 I've been in trades unions, making it
my business to help people. But the one person I was ever desperate to help
and couldn't was my son. It made me feel powerless.'

After his son's death, McCartney was so distraught he needed counselling.
'It's important for others in a similar situation that I say this. I
realised I was in a cul-de-sac and staring at a brick wall. To get out and
turn around I needed support. It's not a weakness to seek help -- it's a
sign of strength.'

Now he is determined to change the system. 'I'm not just a government
minister,' he says. 'I'm a parent too, and if I thought our strategy was
flawed I wouldn't be part of it.'

Much of what the government proposes has his full support; after all, he
thought up a lot of the Labour administration's drug policy while sitting
in the Cabinet Office's performance and innovation unit. But where there
are failings, he is brave enough to say so.

'We live in a drug-oriented society,' he says. 'But the prevailing attitude
both in and out of government towards addicts has been 'It's all your own
fault'. That's why we have virtually no treatment services and a legacy of
3000 deaths a year. In 20 years, 60,000 people have died -- that's enough
to fill Ibrox. That's why we need harm-reduction policies in place.

'My son was drug death number 107 in Scotland in 1999, but this is no
longer about number 107. It's about an attack on an entire generation. We
have to see addicts in the same way we view people with a chronic recurring
illness -- some get better and get off drugs, others relapse and need help
again and again and again. We have to realise that people will only get off
drugs when they want to get off drugs. That means that when they want help,
they get help immediately.

'We have to recreate the communities that have been destroyed by drugs. We
also have to realise that we can't just dump people back where they became
an addict when they leave rehab or prison, as they will just go back to
drugs again.

'They have no home, no job, no family and friends. They are dysfunctional
and we need to help them function again -- both for their sake and ours.
Addicts need to go through rehab and detox near their families, or have
those facilities near at hand. Many people have to go miles away, say to
Newcastle, for this. But half the battle is rebuilding a life for
themselves with their loved ones.'

GPs who refuse to treat patients with drug problems or refuse to put them
on methadone are one of McCartney's biggest bugbears. 'I understand that
addicts can be disruptive -- my own son took desperate measures to get
attention -- but we can't use their disruptive behaviour as an excuse to do
nothing. We have to work with GPs to help them work with addicts. One
solution might be having a dedicated GP clinic in every town that is solely
for addicts. We have to remember addicts are human beings and someone's son
or daughter. I'm not a softie, I'm realistic. Unless we see things this
way, we will get nowhere. Unless we are grown-up and open to debate, the
strategy won't evolve.'

He was one of the first ministers to advocate harm-reduction. 'Kids need to
know the facts. They see drugs on TV, they see their friends using and
sometimes even their parents. We need to be adult enough to admit this. So
for those kids who make the choice to use drugs, we need to give them the
information on how to take drugs safely.'

McCartney does not support the decriminalisation of cannabis, explaining:
'I do not condone the use of cannabis but we need to get real. Taking a
spliff won't kill you -- it might give you cancer in the long term or
impair your mind, but you won't die of it. I'm in favour of using cannabis
for MS once we know how to use it safely. But the real gateway to heroin is
meeting the dealers.

'Harm-reduction will not immediately reduce the number of people using
drugs, but it will mean less harm to society from crime and diseases like
HIV and hepatitis C. Kids die from ecstasy because they don't know what
they are taking. We need to address whether we can check E in clubs to see
if it is safe. The Just Say No message doesn't work. Once a kid takes
impure E, they could die. It is worth debating whether testing stations in
clubs would reduce deaths.

'Methadone programmes also have to be better managed, so if someone wants
to be on a programme they get on a programme. It's the best option we have
at the moment. But just putting them on meth and leaving them on it isn't
enough. They have to be helped to reduce their use so they become
drug-free. And, of course, we need needle exchanges across the country to
stop the spread of HIV. Once someone seeks help they need constant care
until they are clean -- and this must come with tolerance. Prisoners are
being let out of jails with no pre-release programme aimed at helping them
get off drugs.'

McCartney doesn't mouth government rhetoric about law-and-order successes
either. 'Across the country I've seen drug barons move in and literally
take over. Many towns were devastated by Thatcherism, with nine out of 10
people without work. Drugs have become both the economy and the glue of the
community. We have allowed a sophisticated criminal market to develop for
20 years and done nothing to stop it. Some communities believe we've almost
lost the battle against drugs.'

McCartney advocates using the forthcoming Proceeds of Crime Bill, designed
to seize the assets of drug-dealers, to rebuild destroyed communities and
create more services to help users.

'At the moment, the skills are all on the side of the criminals,' he says.
'We have to empower the police. We have to change the power of the courts
so confiscation of all assets becomes the norm; change the burden of proof
so a dealer has to prove where he got his wife's Merc from. We are 20 years
behind these people.

'To truly look after your own, you have to live in a society which looks
after every citizen. This is about kids either living a fulfilling life or
living in a society where they are constantly at the mercy of dealers and
risking death through a few foolish mistakes.'

For a moment I think he is quoting a line from a Manic Street Preachers
song. 'If we tolerate this,' he says, 'all our children could be next.' He
pauses. 'A whole generation could go down,' he adds. 'I can't stand for that.'