Media

Regional News Stories:

Please click on a region of the map to view news stories for that area.

These stories have been collated from regional press sources and no responsibility is taken for the accuracy or content of these pieces.

National and International news

Ecstasy is being replaced as drug of choice for middle-class clubbers

Tony Thompson
Sunday December 29, 2002
The Observer

Henry used to be the best pimp in the country. Until recently he had thousands of women under his direct control and wielded such absolute power that a wide range of subjects, from the prepubescent teenagers to middle-aged mothers, considered him the most important thing in their lives.
But today increasing numbers of Britain's prostitutes are working for a new master: Henry, the street name for heroin, has been surpassed in the pimping stakes by crack cocaine.

The explosion of the use of crack cocaine among the sex industry is part of an overall growth in the use of the drug, which has risen by more than 200 per cent over the past three years. Drug workers say the first signs of a national epidemic, as predicted by US drug workers nearly 15 years ago, are now emerging.

Increasingly, young people see selling crack as an attractive career option and a shortcut to fame and fortune, an image strongly reinforced by lyrics and videos of the hip hop and garage music scene. Last week Shane Neil, a member of the controversial garage band So Solid Crew, was charged with dealing crack cocaine and possessing a gun. He is the third member of the south London-based musical collective to face trial for firearms offences in the past 18 months.

Michael Andrews, a former crack dealer in Bristol, told The Observer: 'You leave school and you have the choice of working in a restaurant for lots of hours, little money and no respect, or you can take a chance, sell crack for a couple of hours a day and then be driving around in a BMW, wearing nice clothes. There is no competition.'

According to a new Home Office report, Tackling Crack, published last week, much of this growth in the use of crack is being 'hidden' by misconceptions about the effect the drug has on those who use it. While normally associated with violence and the black community, the vast majority of crack users are in fact white. Most users manage to avoid the paranoid and psychotic behaviour attributed to the drug.

According to the report: 'A crack user may use with little immediate impact on their behaviour, especially when they use crack alongside other drugs. Most crack users do use crack alongside heroin. However, as their use increases or crack becomes the predominant drug, their dependency and need for the drug may become more chaotic and desperate.

'Neither violence nor mental illness with be present for many users with greater control, particularly those who use crack in addition to their main use of heroin.'

The sex trade is a major consumer of crack and is thought to be at least partly responsible for its growth. The report says many pimps are involved in selling crack and, unlike heroin, crack offers no obvious evidence of use or other signs that might put off the clients of a drug-using prostitute. Crack also reduces inhibitions and acts as a stimulant, allowing sex workers to operate for longer hours. The two industries increasingly operate hand in hand, with many prostitutes purchasing drugs on behalf of their clients and sharing them.

Last week Lambeth council in London decided that the father of shoe-bomber Richard Reid should be expelled from his council flat in Streatham after it was found the property was being used as a crack house and brothel.

The drug is also becoming more common among clubbers. According to leading drug charity DrugScope, more young people are being pushed into experimenting with crack because there are so many fears over the effects of ecstasy use. 'There is growing evidence that clubbers are under the mistaken belief that cocaine is a safer option,' said a spokesman for the charity. 'Because they haven't seen scare stories about cocaine or crack, they believe that it is a better option than ecstasy.'

This research is supported by recent studies in Scotland which show crack cocaine is the drug of choice for middle-class clubbing teenagers.

Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police, Tom Wood, told The Observer: 'Crack cocaine is an emerging threat. There has been a 200 per cent increase in the use of the drug, which is appearing in more clubs and around the dance scene with some young people turning to it instead of ecstasy.' Its growth has been orchestrated by dealers who offer smaller 'clubbing rocks' and tell customers they have run out of cocaine powder.

The spread of crack in Scotland is orchestrated by the same Jamaican gangsters who introduced the drug to London and other major cities. Last week 25-year-old Jamaican national Richard Vassell was jailed for three and a half years in Edinburgh after being caught selling large quantities of crack. In the past year Jamaican dealers have been caught and prosecuted in Aberdeen and Glasgow, despite both cities having very small numbers of black residents.

Police believe they have moved further afield because the market in many cities is becoming saturated. There is also evidence of use of the drug among the Asian community. Last week 19-year-old Deep Chimber, 'star' salesman with Bedford's biggest drugs gang, was sentenced to three and a half years. He dealt vast quantities of heroin, but spent all his profits on his own crack habit.

Ministers are working with education chiefs to come up with classroom-based ways of tackling the problem and educating children about the drug's dangers. A Home Office spokesman said: 'It will be down to schools exactly how they deliver but clearly crack is a dangerous drug and we want to see how we can educate children in the most effective way.'

The Metropolitan Police is also intending to increase the number of firearms officers, adding 50 to 200 deployed earlier, a response to a 23 per cent increase in the number of guns seized by officers last year.

But Danny Kushlink of the pressure group Transform is sceptical. 'It is highly unlikely there will be significant success in reducing imports or street availability, and treatment will work only for those who wish to partake of it. I think it is crucial not to get caught up in demonising crack and to treat the crime associated with it as a policy issue rather than as being in the nature of the drug itself.'

Paul Webster in Paris
Friday December 27, 2002
The Guardian

France is planning to tighten restrictions on the smoking of cannabis in an attempt to curb its steadily rising popularity.
Campaigners claim that millions of people are regularly defying existing laws as more plantations of cannabis are discovered, particularly in the south of the country.

At normal levels of consumption, up to three million French people will have smoked the drug on Christmas day.

France's hardline interior minister, Nicholas Sarkozy, has been consulting cabinet members and government officials on raising the maximum penalties for cannabis use, from the present level of a year in prison or a £5,000 fine.

This month the government made it an offence to drive under the drug's influence after a series of fatal road accidents.

The interior ministry's anti-drugs chief, Michel Bouchet, has also been asked to investigate the cultivation of cannabis after police reported that more than 40,000 plants were pulled out in raids last year, compared to 1,500 10 years ago.

But the pro-cannabis Collectif d'information et de recherche cannibiques, Circ, claimed that there was not a village south of the Loire valley without a plantation. In addition, hundreds of thousands of plants were grown indoors.

The fashion for home-grown cannabis was linked to two DIY books, Fumée clandestine (secret smoke) and Culture en placard (cupboard growing) which have sold 100,000 copies between them.

Drugs squad detectives admit to being overwhelmed, during this month's Hemp Salon in central Paris.

The event was backed by Circ's founder, Jean-Pierre Galland, who campaigns through the Green party for the legalisation of the drug. He has had to pay about £30,000 in fines for his lobbying activities in its favour.

Police visited the salon but there were no arrests despite the sale of gadgets such as the Pollinator which can be used to make hashish.

Visitors were given catalogues by Sensi Seedbank, Holland's main producer, but many amateur growers depend on cannabis seeds sold to feed racing pigeons, which, according to one advertisement, "was like putting a turbo-engine into a sparrow".

Other catalogues offered bat manure, considered as the best fertiliser for growing the seven-leaved plant.

"The great problem is not police raids but theft," a grower from the Var said.

"You'll find small fields hidden in pine forests. Once they have been located, they have to be guarded night and day. A good crop earns enough to keep you all year round, even though it is sold only to friends."

So far, no action has been taken against shops selling specialised equipment, of which there are about 50 in France.

But a decision will have to be taken soon on whether to stop the annual summer festival at Montjean-sur-Loire where cannabis, described as "the symbol of the Loire valley", is easily available.

"It's only a matter of time before pot overtakes tobacco," a festival organiser said.

"There are already nearly half as many pot smokers as tobacco smokers. Some of our visitors say that cannabis saved their life."

Move to stop pupils choosing dealing as a career

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Tuesday December 24, 2002
The Guardian

All young people are to be warned about the dangers of crack cocaine amid growing evidence that dealing it is seen as an attractive career option by some, under a Home Office strategy unveiled yesterday.
The national crack action plan says there is evidence of a growing problem in Britain with about 40 "high crack" areas, mostly in London, where it is now the drug of choice and a violent crack market has grown up.

But it explodes the myth that most crack cocaine is smuggled into Britain by drug mules aboard planes from Jamaica. Indeed customs and excise intelligence estimates that most of the 50 tonnes of cocaine shipped into Britain every year comes in bulk through the Channel ports from the Netherlands after being shipped from Columbia to Spain.

"Smaller but significant amounts of cocaine [up to 15%] are imported from beyond Europe direct to the UK by air.

"Traffickers from the Caribbean are currently substantially involved in this form of importation, but there are other active routes via numerous destinations," the national plan says.

The research published yesterday estimates that there are somewhere between 15,000 and 45,000 crack users aged 16 to 24 in Britain.

Data from the British crime survey shows that contrary to popular stereotypes the vast majority of crack users are white and so the vast majority of crime associated with crack, including dealing, is carried out by white users.

But the same data shows that the prevalence of crack abuse among African-Caribbean communities is at the same level or slightly above that of white and Asian communities.

"This is particularly significant given that research has shown that prevalence rates for most types of drug use are consistently lower among minority ethnic communities. Crack is the exception," the action plan says

The main difference between black and white crack abusers is that white users often combine their use with a heroin habit whereas black users are much less likely to use heroin, on its own or alongside crack.

The national action plan recognises that there is a strong link between crack addiction and prostitution with those involved in pimping often selling crack as well. Crack offers no obvious evidence of use other than signs which put off punters and as a stimulant drug it often helps sex workers to cope.

But it also warns that extreme violence is a common feature of cocaine trafficking: "Some dealers may themselves be users of crack but at times of acute and binge use are unlikely to be fully capable of operating successfully.

"They will use excessive violence to control their patch, compete with other sellers and intimidate witnesses and users, especially those owing money.

"Crack dealers tend to be more likely to use violence. Of all drug dealers they are the ones most likely to use guns and other weapons. Some of this aggression arises from using crack."

The action plan envisages closing the illegal local crack markets as has been done in Brixton, south London, backed up by the development of specialist treatment services and programmes to tackle the groups most affected by crack, such as sex workers.

A major new education programme in schools is also planned: "We need to educate all young people on the risks of crack misuse and to offer young people in areas with crack problems realistic alternatives to crack culture.

"Crack dealing, linked to gun use, is seen by some young people as an attractive career option."

Police want age limit cut from 18 to tackle growing substance abuse problem

Kamal Ahmed, political editor
Sunday December 22, 2002
The Observer

Children as young as 10 should be tested for drugs to tackle the spiralling problem of substance abuse among the young, according to top police officers. They are backing an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would make it legal for police to test for drugs any child over the age of 10 who has been arrested for a criminal offence. At present, no one under 18 can be tested for substance abuse.

Howard Roberts, assistant chief constable of Notting hamshire Police and one of the country's leading experts on drug abuse, has told colleagues that it is only by gaining a better understanding about how many children take drugs that something can be done about it. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said it was considering the proposal and would make a formal statement on the issue early in the New Year.

'It is something we are aware of that raises serious issues that need to be addressed,' a spokesman said. 'There are matters surrounding drug taking and young people that we are looking at.' The amendment will be tabled in the New Year by Graham Allen, the Labour MP who is on the committee scrutinising the Bill as it goes through the Commons.

Allen, MP for Nottingham North, said the present suggestion that the age at which young people can be tested should be reduced to 14 did not go far enough. He said: 'There are young people in my constituency, who by age 14 are old hands to drugs, and well known to local police.

'Drug testing of arrested children should begin at age 10. After all, 10 is the youngest age for criminal responsibility. If a child is taking drugs at 10, then effective early intervention can save taxpayers money, reduce crime in the community and deliver children and families from the misery of drug abuse.'

Allen, who was a government whip before the last election and has just been voted Backbencher of the Year, admitted that civil liberties groups would be outraged by the proposal, but said it should be seen positively as tackling a problem rather than creating a new one.

'A minority of law-breakers make others' lives a misery, particularly in neglected council estates which predominate in constituencies like mine,' he said. 'The focus has been on the civil liberty aspects of the Bill. My concern is the civic freedom of intimidated witnesses, innocent victims and frightened citizens.'

The compulsory testing of adults arrested for 'acquisitive crimes' such as burglary, robbery and shoplifting, has revealed that 60 per cent were using drugs and that crime was a way of fuelling their habit. Chief superintendent Marcus Beale, of Nottinghamshire Police, said that it was time for a new debate on children and drugs.

'When we started drug testing we were amazed at the sheer number of people who tested positive,' Beale, who works with Roberts, said. 'By moving that testing regime down to the age of 10 we are future-proofing the legislation.

'If you think that there might be a problem at 14 now, then in the future there might be a problem at 10. Let's recognise that the situation is changing rapidly.'

Comment: ah, that's right, and then that enforced treatment that will follow. Any ten year old arrested? For anything? And if they are not charged? eh? eh?

Simon Parker: Guardian
Friday December 20, 2002

An intensive media campaign against the drug ecstasy has led to an increase in cocaine use among young people, a leading drug charity has claimed.

DrugScope said there was evidence that growing numbers of clubbers were spurning the dance drug in the mistaken belief that cocaine was a safer option.

"Studies show the reason they no longer use ecstasy is because of the scare stories," said a spokesman for the charity.

"They haven't seen similar stories about cocaine and their belief is that cocaine is the safer drug. The reality is that cocaine, especially crack cocaine, is a much more harmful drug - it kills more people each year and more people have dependency on it."

In a new media guide to drugs, the charity aims to tackle "inaccurate" reporting of drug issues, challenging the "myths that are commonly repeated as fact".

Dr Ross Comber, the guide's editor and a lecturer in sociology at Plymouth University, said: "The repetition of mythology only diverts us from addressing the true source of the real problems that are out there".

DrugScope's guide argues that there are no recorded examples of heroin ever being cut with ground glass, that cannabis is far from being a harmless drug and that there is no such thing as a soft drug.

The charity also says that no drug is instantly addictive and that addiction generally takes several months to develop, while physical withdrawal from heroin is like a bad bout of flu, not a near-death experience.

It adds that most people are introduced to drugs by friends or family members, not by pushers lurking outside school gates.

The charity's spokesman said: "In terms of the risks of ecstasy use, most of the media coverage has, unsurprisingly, been given to fatalities and such deaths are often attributed directly to the drug before any toxicology analysis has been completed or before a coroner's report has been issued. "The concentration on fatalities is, however, problematic in the respect that the non-fatal risks of ecstasy use such as brain damage have seemingly received less media exposure in the UK."

The Home Office responded to the research by promising to launch a new campaign against class A drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine in the new year. A spokeswoman said: "Class A drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy are dangerous and can kill."

Comment: I don't suppose that for once Drugscope could credit people with some intelligence. That for example that people know that the quality of ecstasy is often very dubious, that cocaine has dropped in cost massively and that while E may have experienced some decline in popularity it is still widely taken and widely used.

And I'm not entirely clear what the unsourced "studies" that drug scope cites are. According to the BCS study cited by Drugscope elsewhere, Ecstasy and cocaine use had both increased. It would seem like this was a blatant attempt by Drugscope to secure a bit of media coverage for their new media guide. Tut. Tut.

Pub and club revellers face a drugs test as soon as they enter the premises. Anyone going into a bar, whether they arouse suspicion or not, will be asked to take a swab test, which highlights any drug use.

The scheme is being run by police in south Staffordshire and will initially cover the towns of Cannock and Stafford.

Police have warned that anyone refusing will automatically arouse suspicion and have told establishments that do not co-operate that it will be held against them when their licences come up for renewal.

Liberty, the civil rights pressure group, said it was "deeply worried" and accused the police of operating "by coercion rather than by consent".

Chief Supt Nick Lowe, division commander, said: "The beauty of it is that it is so quick. It will allow us to test hundreds of people in a very, very short amount of time. A swab will be placed on the hand and will show up green, amber or red, depending on if there are drugs in the person's system.

"If it shows red, which means definite contact with drugs, the police can intimate their powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act to stop and search the person, and then arrest them if necessary.

"If it is green or amber no action will be taken. If someone refuses, then it is a tick in the first box of suspicion. Police officers are present and it may be that further questions will be asked."

The equipment used is a £40,000 computer the size of a briefcase, funded by the Communities against Drugs Fund. A swab on the back of the hand, which is then fed into the computer, will test for ecstasy, cannabis, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and also rohipnol, the so-called date rape drug.

The test with results takes about eight seconds and does not provide officers with a DNA sample. The swabs are thrown away immediately.

Mr Lowe said: "We have clear evidence that a large volume of crime is drugs-related, whether it be for violence, vehicle crime or anti-social behaviour.

"The tests appeal to the general majority of the public who want to use drug-free premises. Most people are happy to do it."

Because there is only one computer, the police will also be operating with dummy ones in other premises.

Gareth Crossman, a Liberty spokesman, said: "This is an extremely questionable use of police powers. The police cannot force someone who is not under arrest to take a drug test but they are implying they can.

"To then use a perfectly legitimate refusal to comply as part of the justification for suspicion is an abuse of policing powers."

Comment: This should really be in the regional news stories but it was so outrageous that it warranted a higher profile. It is a massive invasion of civil liberties and the points made by Liberty are absolutely spot on. Anyone in Staffs who is unsure of their rights in this situation should be advised of the following:

1) You are not obliged to give a swab test to the police. Any attempt in this situation to get a swab test result without your consent would constitute assault.

2) Simply refusing to give a swab test would not, itself, constitute grounds for searching on the basis on the grounds of suspicion. While a person could consent to being searched, it seems probable that the police would be exceeding their powers if they attempted to enforce a search based on a refusal to be swabbed.

3) The article says that the machine tests for a range of drugs and includes heroin and rohypnol. It seems likely that the machine, which gives very simple answers, would be unable to differentiate between various benzopidiazepines or opiates; hence there is a high risk of false positives for people who have used or come into contact with lawful substances. We would therefore be concerned that the presence of a positive result would still not in itself be grounds for a search.

4) Landlords in this situation are being put in an intolerable position. The licensing regulations require them to act reasonably to stop use and supply on their premises, and failure to do so could jeopardise a license. But what the police are doing here is coercive and the Institute of Inkeepers should make representations.

5) A positive test can not be used in this situation to prove past possession. But a statement admitting to past possession could be used to convict. So anyone submitting to a test and testing positive should make no statement and should not admit to past-possession.

6) Please pass this on to other people in the area, so that they know their rights.

Helping the homeless used to be all about beds and blankets. But while the focus is now on lasting solutions, resources remain poor for tackling the key issue - drug abuse. Alison Benjamin reports

Wednesday December 11, 2002
The Guardian

Mark Gale used to be homeless. He slept on friends' floors for weeks on end and lived rough for five months. A few days ago, though, he moved into his own council flat - a year after entering a drug "detox" project. "No way could I have done this without detox and rehabilitation," says Gale, 29. "I'd probably be dead or in jail. I'd totally lost control of my life and hit rock bottom. I'd say I was suicidal."

Gale was one of the first residents of the Oxford Drugs Recovery Project (ODRP), which provides accommodation and drug treatment for five rough sleepers with a drug addiction. After a shaky start - two days into his methadone treatment he was back on the streets, craving the ritual of injecting himself - he spent four months at the project.

During his stay, he received medically supervised detoxification by a specialist nurse: three months on methadone, which gave him time to get level-headed; then a month being weaned off the heroin substitute, with the dosage gradually reduced to nothing. At the same time, he attended two therapy groups each day, had one-to-one counselling and took part in activities with other residents, such as cooking and ten-pin bowling.

"I was learning about myself," Gale reflects. "I learned that I didn't have to run by using drugs, and that the things I was running from weren't as scary as I thought they would be. I also learned to enjoy myself again and interact without drugs."

He describes the project as a "huge stepping stone" into a six-month residential rehabilitation programme in London, followed by three months aftercare to accompany his move into supported housing near the rehabilitation centre.

Gale is one of the lucky ones. He, like many of the residents who have been through the ODRP, were referred as part of a drug treatment and testing order - raising concerns that the quickest way for homeless people to get into treatment is to commit a crime.

A survey published today by Homelessness Link, which represents 700 agencies working with homeless people across Britain, reports that the time taken for non-offenders to get any type of drug treatment can range from a week to a year - with only 0.3% of specialist bed spaces earmarked for detox.

"There's a huge need for detox and for homeless people to be able to access it quickly," says Lis Pritchard, chief executive of Homelessness Link. "Three weeks or three months is no good; the motivation is gone and they are back to their old ways, unable to break the cycle of drugs misuse and homelessness."

Last year, the homelessness charity Crisis was able to get into detox only 3% of the people who went through its Winter Watch scheme. Just 0.5% were able to move on to residential rehabilitation.

Now in its 10th year, Winter Watch mirrors the changing face of homelessness. "It used to be all about beds and blankets, and now it's about engaging with people who come in to the hostels to find permanent solutions," says Rachel Hughes, the scheme manager. "But long waiting lists and rationing of drug services make that difficult. It can take between three and 18 months just to get someone a methadone script [prescription], depending on what part of the country you're in."

According to Hughes, about half the residents who stayed at one of the 27 Winter Watch hostels last winter had problems with drugs and alcohol.

This year, the scheme, which expects to see about 1,200 people, aims to get 59% of drug users into some kind of appropriate local treatment, including detox, counselling and methadone prescription.

"I'll be surprised if we meet this target," admits Hughes. "But this is a way of getting the gaps in provision on the agenda locally."

Crisis ran its own hostel-based detox project, as a pilot, but was forced to close it because of lack of rehabilitation places for people to move on to.

So what is the scale of the problem? The government may have cut by two-thirds the number of rough sleepers - its controversial count last winter recorded only 530 people bedding down outdoors - but there are still 100,000 single homeless people a year passing through hostels, night shelters and squats.

Research suggests that three-quarters of these are misusing drugs. A Crisis survey earlier this year of 400 single homeless people showed that four in five had addiction problems - more than a third of whom were dependent on heroin.

Shaks Ghosh, the chief executive at Crisis, says: "Drugs is the number one homelessness problem. We've got to tackle it."

A good-practice handbook issued by the government last week is aimed at increasing drug treatment provision for the homeless. It is designed to help England's 149 drug action teams (Dats) - which commission and monitor drug services - to work more closely with local authorities and homelessness and drug agencies, developing more accessible services.

The handbook was issued a day after the government's revised drug strategy renewed the official target of doubling to 200,000 by 2008 the number of drug users in treatment programmes.

With about 75,000 of these people likely to be homeless, it is little wonder that the guidance states: "Effective services for homeless people will be an important part of reaching these targets."

Barbara Roche, the minister for social exclusion, says: "Homeless people should be treated as a priority, and there is a recognition in government that we need to make more resources available."

However, she admits that none of the £1bn allocated for tackling drugs in the next financial year will be ring-fenced for homelessness drug services. These have hitherto been funded by the government's rough sleepers' unit (RSU), now renamed the homelessness directorate, and have concentrated on getting entrenched rough sleepers off the streets. From April, funding will come through Dats.

The ODRP, run by the English Churches Housing Group and the Luther Street Medical Centre charity, was one of 23 such schemes initially funded by a £1.3m RSU programme. Of the 31 people who have been through the scheme since April last year, 12 have moved on to residential rehabilitation, seven are in long-stay hostels and three, such as Gale, are in their own flats. Only two dropped out. Similar figures are reported by a contact and assessment (Cat) team in Birmingham, which has reduced the number of rough sleepers in the city from 56 to about 20.

The RSU-funded, multi-agency team is led by the Focus housing association and includes a drugs worker from Birmingham DrugLine, which is run by the charity Turning Point. Over a period of months, the team's outreach workers build up trust with rough sleepers and encourage them to move into hostel accommodation and to get drug treatment. As with the Oxford project, the Birmingham scheme's success is attributed, in part, to purchasing drug treatment direct, instead of going through the usual social services channel.

There are concerns, however, that a policy focus on rough sleepers with drug problems has been to the detriment of other homeless people.

The St Basil's housing association, which runs three direct-access hostels and short-term accommodation for young people in Birmingham, says at least half the 1,000 clients it sees each year have a drug problem that is not being addressed.

Frustrated about the time its clients have to wait to get an appointment with a drugs agency, the association is recruiting its own drugs workers by using a new pot of money - the government's Supporting People programme, which will bring together a number of funding sources including housing benefit. These workers will visit St Basil's projects, assess the treatment that residents require and refer them on to the appropriate service.

However, Lorna Esien, St Basil's operations manager, acknowledges that, without an increase in the capacity of such services, their success will be limited.

Birmingham has some of the longest waiting lists in the country, with people taking up to a year to see one of its specialist community drugs teams, run by the North Birmingham mental health trust. The government guidance focuses on adapting mainstream services for homeless people with drug problems and identifies a number of current barriers.

These include homeless people failing to keep appointments or to attend regular treatment sessions because of their chaotic lifestyles; homeless people being viewed by some services as too difficult to help, or disturbing to other clients; and services' opening hours being geared to people who work.

"Mainstream services have to be made available," says Roche. "We need to bend these programmes."

Helen Cochrane, the lead commissioner for drug treatment services for Birmingham Dat, is trying to get more doctors to prescribe methadone. "This will reduce the pressure on the community drugs teams and remove the main barrier for anyone trying to access services, which has been at primary care level," she says.

So far, about 40 Birmingham GPs have signed up to a £1m initiative aimed at the estimated 8,000 heroin addicts across the city. But Russell Johnson, service manager at Birmingham DrugLine, says this approach will have only limited success because GPs are reluctant to register homeless drug users.

"We may have to ring around eight GPs before we can find one," he says. "They aren't keen because they recognise that the person is likely to have multiple needs."

Despite this, Cochrane believes Birmingham is finally waking up to the inadequacy of its ad hoc provision. "In the last 12 months, we've started to create a drug treatment system, rather than individual agencies working in isolation to provide treatment," she says.

The Dat's £5m budget will be increased in 2003-04 to £6.9m and will more than double by 2005-06.

Johnson shares her optimism. The Dat is funding DrugLine's Cat outreach worker and a new post - a treatment support worker to help prevent homeless people, in particular, from relapsing once they have been through treatment.

The Dat has also commissioned two new structured day centres that are due to open in the new year and should go some way to plugging the gap caused by a lack of rehabilitation facilities in Birmingham. However, a shortage of drugs workers, coupled with a lack of dedicated funds for homeless drug users, could yet scupper plans.

It took DrugLine more than six months to replace its Cat outreach worker. The government's national treatment agency estimates that an extra 3,000 more drugs workers will be needed in England by 2008 if government targets are to be met.

At Crisis, Ghosh argues that without dedicated funding, homeless people with drug problems will never be a priority. "Unless they are a priority, the government will never beat homelessness," she says. "The two go hand in hand."

Seasonal respite

More than 900 homeless people are expected to use the Crisis Christmas shelter, which opens its doors in south London in 12 days' time.

The first such shelter opened 30 years ago to provide rough sleepers with a festive meal and a bed for the night. Last year, only a third of visitors were sleeping on the streets; the majority lived in hostels or had recently moved into their own flat.

Crisis's Open Christmas provides access to a range of medical and advice services over eight days. Staff employed by drug agency Equinox try to provide help with a variety of substance misuse problems. Outside the capital, similar services will be provided over the next four months to visitors at 15 hostels across Britain, as part of the Crisis Winter Watch scheme.

The St Mungo's housing association has replaced its cold-weather shelters with a rolling programme that accommodates more than 100 rough sleepers in London on any night - winter or summer. Residents are entrenched street sleepers, referred by a contact and assessment team.

During a maximum three-week stay, staff aim to find permanent move-on accommodation for the residents and get them into treatment to tackle alcohol or substance abuse, mental health problems or physical illness. More than half all St Mungo residents have a substance misuse worker, with 7% referred to either a residential detox or specialist treatment programme.

Even if homeless people are found permanent homes, research shows that almost a quarter of tenancies fail because needs are not addressed.

Comment: It is hugely frustrating that NOT ONE of the agencies managed to get a mention in here about the changes to the law and the effect that this will have. They ALL know about it. But not a single mention. It drives you up the wall, it really does.

Police chiefs drop 'three strikes' cannabis policy

IC wales - Dec 8 2002

Chief police officers have dropped plans to introduce a "three strikes and you're out" policy on cannabis, it is reported. The Association of Chief Police Officers will abandon the tactic they announced just three months ago, the Police Review magazine says. The plan was in response to Home Office plans to downgrade the drug from Class B to Class C. This magazine says ACPO has bowed to pressure from rank-and-file officers to retain their right to arrest users on the first occasion they are caught with the drug.

Mick Barker, a member of the ACPO drugs working party, says the three strikes rule would "bring into total disrepute the authority and discretion of a police officer". It would make police intervention into a cannabis offence "nonsensical", he added. "The next draft will be altered to support - indeed openly state - the discretion of the officer is sacrosanct in respect of an arrest for this specific offence and is primary to any published guidelines," said Mr Barker.

The three strikes policy was first outlined in September by chairman of the ACPO committee, the Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman. It said the first two occasions someone was caught with up to three grammes of drug would lead to a formal warning and confiscation. A third incident in any 12-month period would lead to arrest, the original guidelines said.

ACPO has made it clear that when the updated rules are published in the new year officers will be told to arrest dope users only in exceptional circumstances. The measures are expected to come into effect next July.

Comment: This is an utter farce. ACPO consult on and produce guidance, and rank-and file officers are not consulted. The ACPO guidance was never workable (see elsewhere on the site) and this rejection of the guidance by the police is wholly understandable. In addition to the problems described, police were also unhappy about being asked to confiscate cannabis as it leaves them open to accusations. But in reality, this decision changes very little. Even under a three-strikes system, there was always scope for the Police to arrest, a fact that often escaped the UK media.

Tories attack Labour on drugs culture

E-politix: 5/12/02

The government's drug's policy threatens schoolchildren and is driven by a "liberal elite", the Conservatives have warned.

During a Commons debate on drugs policy, shadow home affairs minister, Nick Hawkins, rounded on David Blunkett's recent reclassification of cannabis to a grade C drug.

The Surrey MP highlighted three studies linking cannabis to "huge increases" in depression or schizophrenia and a five-fold cancer risk.

By liberalising the drug, Hawkins claimed that ministers were sending the wrong signal to children.

He accused the government of listening to pro-legalisation "crackpots on the Labour backbenches".

"The physical and mental health of a whole generation of youngsters is being put at risk because of this government's willingness to accept the drugs agenda of a small liberal metropolitan elite," he said.

Home Office anti-drugs minister, Bob Ainsworth, asked Hawkins whether a Tory government would reverse the move?

After citing scientific research showing cannabis dangers, the Conservative frontbencher said his party would take a different approach.

"We have said that when we come to office any changes we make will be evidence based," he told MPs. "We actually believe in science."

"We will try to do everything evidence based not based on the pro-legalisation fantasies that are shared by a number of his backbenchers."

While the Conservatives have yet to take an official line on overturning cannabis reclassification other frontbenchers have taken a hawkish line.

"I think David Blunkett has made a mistake and I would be astonished if when we return to government we stick to the policy that he introduced this last week," the former home secretary and shadow chancellor, Michael Howard said recently.

New laws 'confuse cannabis policy'

Sunday, 1 December, 2002, 06:15 GMT

BBC News

The government's policy on cannabis has been condemned as "confused" because new legislation means possession could lead to arrest.
Under the new Criminal Justice Bill, to be debated by MPs this week, any individuals caught with any Class C drugs could be arrested.

Home Secretary David Blunkett downgraded cannabis from Class B to C in order to allow greater focus on Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

That meant it remained illegal, but possession of small amounts would no longer be considered an arrestable offence.

The Liberal Democrats and a leading drugs charity have reacted with anger to the new bill, which they say sends out a mixed message.

The Bill also proposes that the maximum penalty for trafficking a Class C drug will rise from five years' imprisonment to 14 years.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said his party would challenge the bill.

He said: "Possession of Class C drugs should not be an arrestable offence.

'Muddle'

"The government should be using the bill to send a clear message that the punishment will fit the severity of the offence and the class of drug involved.

"Ministers are in danger of creating a muddle."

Roger Howard, chief executive for the drugs charity DrugScope, said: "This about-face makes a mockery of reclassification.

"Instead of focusing on Class A drugs, saving police time and producing a more logical drugs policy, the small print of this bill means that the law will be more severe and more confused than ever."

In the majority of cases, however, officers will issue a warning and seize the drugs

Home Office
Labour MP for Cardiff Central Jon Owen Jones, who last year tabled a bill to legalise cannabis, said: "It is a very regrettable and difficult to understand decision.

"The government seems to have one foot forward and another foot back."

Home Office notes explaining the provisions of the bill read: "This change in the law would mean that police would retain their power of arrest for possession of cannabis after the proposed reclassification of the drug from Class B to Class C."

A Home Office spokeswoman denied there was any confusion.

She said the Association of Chief Police Officers would be bringing out a guide on the new laws, adding: "It is critical that the police retain the power of arrest to deal with cannabis possession linked to aggravated behaviour that threatens public disorder.

"In the majority of cases, however, officers will issue a warning and seize the drugs."

Blunkett abandons 'unreal' drug targets

Independent

By Sophie Goodchild, Home Affairs Correspondent
01 December 2002
The Government is to abandon "unrealistic" drug targets, which include halving heroin and cocaine abuse among the young, as part of an overhaul of its anti-drugs strategy.

This week, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is also expected to announce increased spending on treatment for users who commit crime to pay for their habit. The number of doctors prescribing drug substitutes will increase.

The Home Office will also publish the findings of a study by York University that show the annual cost of drug abuse is nearly £19bn – or £11,000 for each seriously addicted heroin and cocaine user.

In 1998, Keith Hellawell, the former drugs czar, produced a 10-year strategy for reducing drug abuse. This included targets such as halving the proportion of people under 25 using Class A drugs by 2008.

A senior Home Office source said Mr Blunkett would unveil tougher, more streamlined targets on tackling drug abuse. "Targets like reducing the ability to acquire drugs are difficult to measure," said the source. "We intend to introduce ... more focused targets."

This month, the Association of Chief Police Officers will publish its strategy on cannabis, which will become a Class C drug next year. Users can still face a caution, a move criticised by politicians and drugs charities.

"Reform of the drugs laws should begin with the decriminalisation of cannabis. That means ... that no-one should be prosecuted for using cannabis," said Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesman.

Report on drugs policy to be debated

Home Affairs Committee

House of Commons

Press Release 2002-03 No. 1

29 November 2002

The Home Affairs Committee's Report into The Government's Drugs Policy: Is it Working? (HC 318) will be debated in the House of Commons on Thursday 5 December.

The Committee's Report was published in May 2002 following an eight month inquiry into drugs policy. The Committee made various recommendations for change in the Government's policy, including:

An increased focus on problematic drug users
Reclassification of cannabis as a class C drug and ecstasy as a class B drug
Priority for prevention in drugs education
Renewed emphasis on harm reduction and treatment of drug users, including the setting up of pilot safe injecting areas for drug users and a better use of diamorphine prescribing for persistent heroin addicts

The Report also discussed issues of legalisation and regulation of some substances, although the Committee declined to recommend such a step.

Comment: This would be a good opportunity to lobby MPs and ensure that they raise matters that have come to pass since the Home Affairs SC report, most noatbly the decision not to proceed with injecting rooms and the failure to address Section 8 in an appropriate manor.

Cannabis 'may cause public health disaster'

New study warns of dangers posed by modern, high-strength versions of drug
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
11 November 2002
Doctors warn today that the use of cannabis, the most commonly-used illegal drug in the UK, could result in a public health disaster on the scale of that caused by tobacco because its toxic side-effects are being ignored.

Evidence is growing that the drug that inspired a generation to make love, not war, in the 1960s is a trigger of psychotic delusion, lung disease and immune dysfunction.

A review by the British Lung Foundation says that the cannabis available on the streets today is 15 times more powerful than the joints being touted three decades ago. Smoking three joints a day causes the same damage to the lungs as 20 cigarettes.

Dame Helena Shovelton, the chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: "Fifty years ago smoking was thought to be a good thing. Now it is described as a public health disaster. We don't want to see the same happen with cannabis."

A survey earlier this year showed 79 per cent of children thought cannabis was "safe" while only 2 per cent understood that it can be damaging to health. The impression that cannabis promised a risk-free high was increased when David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, declared his intention to downgrade the drug from Class B to Class C, reducing the penalties for possession, say campaigners.

The report from the British Lung Foundation says that sophisticated cultivation has increased the potency of the plants used today with the result that long-term studies of the drug's effects made in the 1960s and 1970s may no longer be relevant.

The evidence indicates that three cannabis joints cause the same damage to the lining of the lungs as 20 cigarettes. Tar from cannabis "joints" contains 50 per cent more carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) than tobacco, and a joint is smoked more deeply than a cigarette.

Studies show that habitual cannabis smokers are more likely to have persistent coughs and suffer from bronchitis and wheezing episodes. Cannabis is often mixed with tobacco and the ill-effects of the two drugs together are greater than when smoked separately.

Dr Mark Britton, the chairman of the British Lung Foundation, said: "These statistics will come as a surprise to many people, especially those who choose to smoke cannabis rather than tobacco in the belief it is safer for them."

It has been observed for more than a century that heavy doses of the drug can induce hallucinations and it is now known that cannabis causes the brain to increase production of the chemical dopamine. In schizophrenia, the hallucinations result from an excess of dopamine, so any drug that increases release of dopamine will worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, says regular consumers of cannabis are at higher risk of developing schizophrenia. Studies in Sweden and the Netherlands showed regular consumers of the drug were up to six times more likely to develop psychosis than those who didn't.

The British Lung Foundation report says a decreased immune function may explain why there appears to be an association between cannabis use and fungal and bacterial infections in people with cancer, transplant patients and those infected with HIV.

Britons Could Get Cannabis on Prescription in 2003

Nov. 5
— By Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - British multiple sclerosis patients could get cannabis medicine on prescription as early as next year.

GW Pharmaceuticals Plc, the company behind the treatment, said on Tuesday that four Phase III trials showed its product was significantly better than placebo in relieving disease symptoms. Phase III is the last stage of drug testing before approval.

The medicine, which is sprayed into the mouth rather than smoked, effectively reduced nerve damage pain, spasticity and sleep disturbance in the tests involving around 350 patients.

Those expecting a marijuana high from the new drug, however, are likely to be disappointed since the British company's product is designed to have minimal psychoactive effects.

GW -- which cultivates some 40,000 cannabis plants a year at a secret location in the English countryside -- now plans to seek marketing approval from Britain's Medicines Control Agency early next year.

"The performance of GW's medicine has exceeded our own expectations," said Executive Chairman Geoffrey Guy. "Subject to regulatory approval, we are now on track to deliver our first prescription medicine to the UK market next year."

GW had previously forecast a product launch in early 2004 but the good results mean patients could get the drug earlier.

Britain's Multiple Sclerosis Society, representing patients with the nerve disease, said the news was "very encouraging."

"We hope we are moving much closer to the day when people with MS will have access to cannabis-derived drugs which have been proved both effective and safe in the treatment of symptoms of this long-term condition," said spokesman David Harrison.

Many multiple sclerosis sufferers have long been convinced that cannabis helps their condition and an estimated 10 percent of British patients are estimated to already use it illegally.

OTHER USES

GW is conducting a further five Phase III trials as part of an overall program which is the largest ever undertaken into the medicinal effects of cannabis. The spray is also being studied for treating pain in cancer and spinal cord injury.

Julie Simmonds, biotechnology analyst at Evolution Beeson Gregory, expects GW to generate peak sales of around 250 million pounds ($388.9 million) a year in Europe and Canada, the first markets where approval will be sought.

The British government has already indicated it is ready to alter rules governing the use of cannabis to allow doctors to prescribe GW's medicinal formulation.

Europe and Canada are expected to follow any green light from Britain within six to nine months, but approval in the United States will be at least two years behind due to the stringent tests required by the Food and Drug Administration.

No decision on pricing has yet been made but Guy told Reuters GW's product would be competitive with rival medicines for nerve pain that cost some 1,200 to 2,000 pounds a year.

GW, which reported a loss of 5.3 million pounds in the six months to March 31, expects to sign a marketing deal with a large pharmaceutical company by early next year.

Shares in GW, which had jumped 17.5 percent on Monday after the company announced it would publish the Phase III data on November 5, eased three percent on profit-taking to 146 pence by 1040 GMT, valuing the group at just under 150 million pounds. The company floated at 182p in 2001.

Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Police investigate bungles that put heroin on the streets of Britain

Sylvia Jones and James Oliver
Saturday November 2, 2002
The Guardian

A customs officer killed himself because he feared he was going to be made the fall guy by police for important heroin cases that went wrong, the Guardian has discovered.
Amjad Bashir, 37, was found hanged by his wife, Farida, in the garage of his Middlesbrough home in April. His family say he was a "lowly officer" who killed himself over an inquiry into a drugs operation later called into question.

Customs and excise - whose elite enforcement arm, the national investigation service, is facing two major police inquiries, disclosed by the Guardian yesterday - has been battered by the collapse of prosecutions and a series of damning government reports into its competence.

Defence lawyers have described the agency as "out of control". NIS tactics have been criticised by judges, who are steadily quashing convictions or ordering retrials - sometimes even where defendants had been persuaded to plead guilty. One in 10 NIS staff in Leeds is currently suspended.

A four-year police investigation, Operation Brandfield, into drug smuggling cases is due to report to the crown prosecution service at the end of the year. But a second inquiry, by Scotland Yard, into customs' questionable tactics against the black market in untaxed spirits, has only just begun.

These are massive blows to an organisation that traded on a "whiter-than-white" image during headline-grabbing tales of police corruption in the 1970s and 1980s.

It has been difficult to report the slow-motion disaster inside an underfunded and undersupervised customs for the past five years because so many cases have been going through the courts, with accompanying reporting restrictions. Even now, pending trials limit what can be revealed.

A veteran customs investigator in the north of England was originally the police's most important target. In 1998 officers from the south-east regional crime squad launched an undercover operation.

An informant said he had been approached to take part in a sting involving bogus drug importations. After early failures to make progress, the customs veteran was heard on an intercept talking about a drugs case.

The Operation Brandfield team went on to investigate a whole series of events in Pakistan.

Two prosecutions involving 55kg of heroin had collapsed in 1998 after a drug smuggler called Hussein Shah claimed that drug liaison officers in Pakistan had induced him to set up potential drug dealers in the UK.

In the late 1980s, customs began to post drug liaison officers to embassies round the world to cultivate informants. They refined a technique called "controlled deliveries".

A DLO in Pakistan would arrange for drugs to be bought and flown into the UK. His informant would then contact the buyers and arrange the transfer under customs supervision in the hope of catching both the Pakistani suppliers and British customers.

Under strict guidelines, customs are only allowed to facilitate the completion of an existing plot. Neither customs, nor an informant, "should counsel, incite or procure the commission of a crime". Most importantly, "he must on no account act as an agent provocateur".

The guidelines say customs "must never commit themselves to a course which, whether to protect an informant or otherwise, will constrain them to mislead a court".

Reckless

However, after an earlier drugs case had collapsed, Mr Justice Foley had commented presciently that the NIS had "a culture, a climate, of carelessness and recklessness - a catalogue of flawed procedures, misleading requests, illegalities and incompetence".

Paul Evans, a former MI6 head of station in Vienna, was brought in from outside in 1999 to make reforms. Another outsider, merchant banker Richard Broadbent, replaced the retiring customs chairwoman, Valerie Strachan.

But cases continue to unravel. The criminal cases review commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice is now reviewing "controlled delivery" convictions, including that of Hussein Shah. Two other cases are due to reach the court of appeal early next year.

Last July a man who pleaded guilty in Scotland's biggest heroin bust walked free after West Midlands investigators disclosed that some of the customs officers were under investigation.

Customs had allowed a 2kg "sample" given to Shaukat Ali by the informant to go missing and his lawyers claimed that Mr Ali had been lured into accepting heroin.

Operation Brandfield has now examined at least 11 major operations - most of them so-called "controlled deliveries" believed to involve the importation of up to 200kg of heroin into the UK by customs, some of which is known to have gone missing and ended up on the streets.

It is not just NIS drug cases that are coming apart at the seams. The same evidence of a reckless modus operandi now threatens to unravel numerous convictions of people for evasion of alcohol duty.

On July 26, the convictions of eight men were overturned on appeal. A bonded warehouse called London City Bond and its participating informant owner, Alfred Allington, had between 1996 and 1998 alone, encouraged under customs direction over £300m of alcohol to be diverted in about 40 different scams.

The appeal court said bluntly that an NIS investigator had lied about this to the court and so had his participating informant. Scotland Yard's specialist inquiry squad is now investigating.

Customs and excise remains relatively unaccountable. It retains the power to conduct its own prosecutions, unlike the police.

The Gower and Hammond report of 2001 identified cutbacks in the customs' solicitors office and a massive increase in its workload. It mentioned a "tendency of investigators to bypass" lawyers and the identification of an "investigators' culture of secrecy" that caused them to "withhold important information from their lawyers".

At the same time customs became more business friendly under John Major's government. Red tape was cut and the emphasis shifted to facilitating trade.

As customs officers were pulled back from the ports and warehouses and staff cut, the organisation became more reliant than ever upon investigations to catch criminals.

BY MARK SMITH

The Scotsman

THE man behind plans for a cannabis cafe in Edinburgh today announced an opening date next summer despite a Government warning that such ventures would remain illegal.

Kevin Williamson, the book publisher who discovered Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, insisted he remained determined to press ahead with the project despite difficulties finding a willing landlord.

The cafe, which would either sell cannabis or have a policy of tolerating smoking of the illegal drug on its premises, is likely to open on July 1 next year, the day that cannabis laws are to be relaxed across the UK.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced that the drug will be reclassified on that day, becoming a class C drug rather than class B.

The reclassification means that punishments for personal use will be less severe, although dealing in the drug could still incur a heavy jail sentence.

Mr Williamson said that he had pencilled in the opening date and hoped that by then the change in the law would convince local authorities, including the police, to let the cafe trade.

He said: "My plan is to open the cafe for business on July 1. It makes sense to do it on that day as that is when the law will change on cannabis classification.

"Another factor is that there will have been a Scottish Parliament election by that time and there may be a different atmosphere, with more MSPs who support a sensible policy on cannabis elected to parliament."

Mr Williamson admitted that he and his backers were still searching for a venue for the cafe.

The Rebel Inc book publisher had initially planned to have the cafe up and running by the end of this year.

But difficulties in convincing potential landlords that they would not get into trouble are understood to have been a major stumbling block.

"We are looking at a number of options and we hope to have a place lined up and ready to go by February," he said.

"When a place is lined up we will tell the local people first. We also hope to have the legal side of it sorted out so that landlords are not worried about becoming involved."

Mr Williamson would not comment on which venues had been looked at so far, but it is understood that several places have been lined up only for the landlord to pull out when they realised what the venture was.

The Grassmarket, Broughton Street and Cockburn Street are understood to be favoured areas for a venue for the cafe.

Mr Williamson has already launched a recruitment drive for his venture, with a magazine advert attracting interest from more than 200 applicants. Staff have been lined up for the venture and have been informed of the planned opening date.

Mr Blunkett’s proposals to reclassify cannabis from a class B drug to a class C mean possession of small amounts of the drug will no longer be an offence worthy of arrest, and those caught with it will face only fines or cautions.

But it remains unclear what action would be taken in the case of a "bring your own" cafe if its owners decided not to sell the drug on their premises to try to avoid prosecution.

In Scotland, the police must report possession of cannabis to the procurator fiscal, but it is understood there is confusion in the service over what action it could take to bring a case to court under the new law.

Mr Blunkett said that in most cases of cannabis possession, police officers will simply "issue a warning and seize the drugs". But in a bid to counter allegations that he was going "soft on drugs", he said the maximum sentence for dealing class C substances would be upped from five years to 14.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Cannabis cafes which supply the drug to their customers are illegal and will continue to be so when the reclassification comes in next July. Anyone operating such a cafe will be prosecuted.

"As for cafes where individuals use cannabis, these individuals would be liable to prosecution, but there is nothing specific in our guidelines about what would happen to the owner of such a place."

Alistair Ramsay, director of the Scotland Against Drugs campaign, said: "It’s vital that the message goes out that this does not mean the decriminalisation of cannabis, and that the courts now have the option of jailing the operators of cannabis cafes for 14 years."

Comment: The amount of confusion that seems to be stemming from the cannabis reclassification is unbelieveable. And equally unbelievable is the extent to which supposedly informed people are so unclear about what the law does and doesn't say. Section 8 offence. Pure and simple. Five year sentence for Section 8 offences relating to Class C drugs. Got it? Good.

JAMES DOHERTY: The Scotsman

POLICE are to hand out needles and syringes to drug addicts at police stations in Lanarkshire as part of a drive to combat an increase in HIV and hepatitis infections.

But the plan has been condemned as "defeatist" by a Glasgow MSP, who said police should be tougher on those found to be using illegal drugs.

The pilot initiative was launched yesterday at Motherwell, Coatbridge and Cumbernauld police stations.

If successful, it is likely to be extended across Strathclyde. In Glasgow alone, there are about 15,000 injecting drug users who could potentially gain access to the scheme.

Within North Lanarkshire, 27 people have died from drug abuse, compared to five in the previous year.

Half of the deaths were caused by heroin injecting, while toxicology results show the remainder were caused by a mixture of heroin, alcohol and other controlled drugs, such as Temazepam.

Drug abusers arrested by officers will be offered free injecting kits when they are released from custody.

They can also visit police stations involved in the trial to exchange needles when local chemists are closed.

The programme emulates similar schemes in Dundee and England, and is backed by the Lanarkshire Alcohol and Drug Action Team and Lanarkshire Primary Care NHS Trust Harm Reduction Scheme.

A needle exchange currently operates in 18 pharmacies in the areas covered by the police stations.

However, Bill Aitken, the Glasgow MSP and Tory deputy justice spokesman, condemned the move. He said: "I can understand the police approach, but I see it as being defeatist.

"People should not be on drugs and it is the purpose of the police to discourage it.

"An increasing number of HIV cases means there is a need for a needle exchange, but that it a matter for health authorities."

Chief Superintendent Tom Buchan, the divisional commander for North Lanarkshire, defended the plan. He said: "The decision to implement this scheme was not taken lightly. I know people might interpret this action as supportive of drug misuse, but nothing could be further from the truth.

"When drug users are released from custody they will then try and find drugs in a hurry. The scheme recognises the reality of the situation and seeks to make that process clean."

Marie Hayes, of the Lanarkshire Alcohol and Drug Action Team, said: "This is about harm reduction and we see it as an innovative step."

Joe Grant, the secretary of the Strathclyde Police Federation, said the move would offer extra protection to officers. He said: "We are supportive of it because it reduces the risk of officers being harmed.

"It does not mean we are going soft on dealing with drug abuse, but it can help reduce needlestick injuries as drug users become more open with us."

Unlike Dundee, where only one person in 10,000 is a drug addict, the impact of drugs across Strathclyde is much more severe, which could lead to increased demands on the police stations involved in the pilot.

In Inverclyde, an average of 3.8 people in every 1,000 use heroin as their main drug, while in Glasgow, it is 2.5 in every 1,000.

Those advocating the new approach hope that the scheme will provide a gateway to allow drug users to access the health care system, which, in turn, will allow targeted treatment to help addicts beat their dependence.

Comment: Cheers to the Police and Boos to the MSPs. It's a sensible proposal and has been successfully initiated elsewhere. Though I have reservations about police stations being used as late-night nx facilities.

25% of ethnic minority Scots have tried drugs

The Herald - VICKY COLLINS 17.12.02

A NEW report showing t