Scottish Drugs Forum
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22 June 2006
PROBLEM drug use in Scotland will never be tackled effectively unless massive efforts are made to overcome the deeply-entrenched poverty in communities worst affected by drugs, according to David Liddell, Director of Scottish Drugs Forum, the national drugs policy and information charity.
Scotland has one of the highest levels of problem drug use in Europe and the vast majority of the estimated 51,000 people with drug problems in Scotland live in areas blighted by lack of jobs and legitimate opportunities to earn income.
But current drugs strategy fails to focus on how to overcome these root issues – robbing problem users of vital opportunities which can help them avoid them developing a drug problem or finding a route out of it.
The issue will be under discussion at “Drug Problems and Poverty – the Poor Relations?” a major conference being held in Glasgow today and organised by Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) in association with the Scottish Poverty Information Unit of Glasgow Caledonian University to mark the 20th anniversary of SDF’s inception in 1986.
The Scottish Executive’s National Investigation into Drug-related Deaths in Scotland for 2003 found that 42 percent of deaths occurred with the most socially deprived areas of Scotland (Deprivation categories 6 and 7). In Greater Glasgow –which has the largest number of drug deaths in Scotland - more than half (58 percent) of its drug deaths were in the most deprived category (category 7).
“Real and effective progress on reducing drugs harm in Scotland is being hampered because drug problems are seen – wrongly - as primarily either medical or criminal justice issues.
“It cannot be a coincidence that depressants including heroin remain the most favoured drugs of choice in Scotland. They numb some of the most vulnerable people in our society from the harsh realities and overwhelming difficulties of their lives – the very people least able to cope with such challenges.
“We need to alter our thinking on that and return to the thinking of 20 years ago when we looked upon problem drug use as primarily a social issue, which has medical or criminal justice implications.
“That will pose huge challenges for public policy in terms of its focus and spending choices – but it is strikingly clear that the status quo is not an option.
“We have got to stop going down the road of just seeing problem drug use as an individual’s personal failing and start asking questions about wider society’s responsibilities for creating the structures which allow problem drug use to develop and flourish.
“Problem drug use does, undeniably, create social ills in society. But it can be argued that problem drug use is also a symptom of a dysfunctional society.
“By continuing to focus almost exclusively on the “culpability” of problem drug users for society’s wrongs, we let those who have the power to influence the way we live completely off the hook.
“Not only is that unjust, it is counter-productive to reducing drugs harm.”
The conference – which starts at 10am - has attracted nearly 100 delegates representing policy makers and practitioners in the drugs field from all over Scotland. The conference will also look at issues including homelessness, education and training, children in poverty and reducing the financial burden of grandparents and other kinship carers.