Scottish Drugs Forum
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9 October 2006
MORE specialist treatment services are needed to tackle the growing cocaine problem in Scotland, a major conference on cocaine organised by Scottish Drugs Forum will be told today (Monday 9 October 2006).
Only two publicly-funded specialist services exist in Scotland – one in Edinburgh (Edinburgh Stimulant User Service) and one in Aberdeen (INCITE), both voluntary sector agencies – despite cocaine use and drugs deaths involving cocaine being higher than ever.
Yet one in five of the 111 deaths in 2005 in the Greater Glasgow & Clyde area involved cocaine and cocaine was present in 44 drug-related deaths across Scotland in 2005 – the highest since records began in 1996 and up from 38 in 2004, according to the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS).
Meanwhile, the Scottish Crime Survey in 2004 indicates that at least 45,000 people aged between 16 and 59 in Scotland had used cocaine in the previous year - a huge increase from the estimated figure of around 12,000 in 1993.
And the number of drug users taking cocaine and seeking help for a drugs problem is also rising – a total of 949 stepped forward for treatment in 2005/2006, up from 438 in 2000/2001.
David Liddell, Director of SDF, the national drugs policy and information charity, will tell the conference in Glasgow that urgent responses are needed to counter growing problems in three key areas of cocaine use:
- Recreational use: More targeted and realistic education is needed to advise recreational users of ways to reduce cocaine harm. For example, people snorting cocaine should be aware that there can be risks of contracting Hepatitis C and HIV from minute traces of blood on shared equipment such as rolled-up banknotes, straws, razors and mirrors.
- Cocaine-only problems: More specialist services need to be in place for cocaine users who go on to develop a problem – cocaine treatment is different from heroin treatment and there is no substitute drug such as methadone for heroin; people with cocaine problems see themselves as being different from heroin users and they can also be discouraged from seeking treatment if it is not immediately available.
- Cocaine use combined with heroin problems: Many problem heroin users are now also using cocaine – so services will have to gear up to responding to the effects of combined drug use such as cocaine’s ability to de-stabilise heroin treatment, and increased paranoia among heroin users as a result of taking cocaine on top.
"Much more requires to be done to respond to the ever-growing problems posed by Scotland’s increased cocaine use. However, it is clear that different types of cocaine users will require a range of responses,” says David Liddell.
“Cocaine’s image means that messages on risk must be seen as being credible and realistic by current and potential users otherwise they will ignore what they’re told.
“Cocaine users who go on to develop a problem will require treatment quite different from that offered by traditional services which tend to be geared to dealing with heroin-related problems. This user group – many of whom are working professionals – will also require services which are sensitive to their lifestyle needs and also to the fact that many of them do not see themselves as problem drug users like people with heroin problems.
“Finally, the new challenges being posed to traditional drug services by people using cocaine on top of a heroin problem means that agencies must review what help they should be offering. Services must more listen more closely to people they are trying to help.”
More than 100 practitioners from across Scotland will attend “Cocaine in Scotland – what’s the risk?” in Glasgow.