A NAIVE APPROACH TO SCOTLAND'S DRUG PROBLEMS

MAYBE it's a leadership thing but Annabel Goldie most certainly has
an unco' guid conceit of herself in her expostulation, How we can win
this war on drugs (November 14).

I'd be first in the queue -- after the users and families themselves
- -- to shake the hand of anyone who has got the panacea for Scotland's
drug dependency problems, but to my knowledge, there isn't one.
Ridding Scotland of drugs may be a desirable thing but since the
world's major powers are having distinct difficulty in that very
issue, it's hardly likely to become a reality. Ms Goldie displays a
degree of naivety remarkable for a politician of her standing when
she talks in such terms.

To look at drugs dependence as a problem of its own making is to miss
the point entirely. It is overwhelmingly linked to poverty and
deprivation and to tackle it successfully we must also tackle the
complex reasons behind drug problems and offer some hope to the user
that life without a drugs habit can be better and more fulfilling.

It really is stating the bleedin' obvious to say that methadone is
not the answer -- I know almost no professional who thinks or who has
ever thought that. While it may be a management strategy -- though
often not linked up to other vital support services as it should be
- -- that's better than no management strategy, and it is utterly wrong
for Ms Goldie to allow herself to be manipulated into dismissing it
as of no value.

That's not to say there isn't room for improvement, and lots of it --
Ms Goldie is right when she says more immediate support and
rehabilitation are needed. But one size does not fit all and there
must be a wide range of options open to those seeking help. Everyone
in the field -- including the abstinence-only groups feted by Ms
Goldie -- must bear this in mind.

She chooses to focus on detoxification issues only and ignores the
equally important need to develop routes out of a drug problem so
that users can move on permanently to education, training and
meaningful employment. Ironically, post-industrial decline triggered
in the 1980s has played a huge part in the explosion of drug -- and
alcohol -- problems in communities now ravaged by all forms of deprivation.

At least 10,000 vocational places will be needed over the next 10
years across Scotland to meet the need and demand for users to allow
them to experience -- never mind get back to -- the normal lives they
so desperately crave.

David Liddell, director

Scottish Drugs Forum

5 Waterloo Street

Glasgow