Cold turkey plan for Scots addicts

THE biggest shake-up of drugs policy for 20 years is to be pushed through by Labour in a bid to get Scotland's 50,000 addicts off heroin and other deadly substances.

Drug users will be urged to ditch methadone and other softly-softly approaches in favour of "cold turkey" at addiction treatment centres, under the party's Holyrood election plans.

Party chiefs are increasingly frustrated with "so-called experts" in the health service who continue to advocate that harm reduction - managing addicts' drug use - is the answer.

In a dramatic policy U-turn, senior Labour figures are convinced addicts should be pressured to get themselves clean, and out of the cycle of drug abuse and crime that blights countless lives.

Drugs policy throughout the UK is under unprecedented scrutiny following the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich, all of whom were working the streets to feed their habits.

Scottish ministers will shortly unveil a manifesto pledge to crack down on the drugs crisis should they be returned to power following May's Holyrood election. The planned measures include:

• Removing addicts from their own communities where temptation is too strong, in order to attend abstinence courses in other areas. A pilot programme about to begin in Edinburgh will be rolled out across the country, if it is shown to produce results;

• A crackdown on health boards which, Labour chiefs claim, are currently forcing addicts to wait for months before they attending a rehabilitation course by leaving beds unfilled;

• A change in the law allowing routine searching of prison visitors to prevent drugs from being smuggled inside;

• Getting ex-addicts into schools to 'scare' pupils about the reality of hard drug addiction.

Critics within the addiction services last night claimed the moves could be counter-productive and might force thousands of addicts underground.

But the plan's supporters insisted tough measures had to be taken if Scotland was ever to turn around the drug menace.

Scotland has been rocked by a series of shocking cases involving drug use, including the death of a two-year-old boy who had drunk the methadone prescribed for his drug addict mother.

And the moves are strongly supported by one of Scotland's leading drug experts, Professor Neil McKeganey.

This week he is calling for an end to the 20-year-old policy of harm reduction, which sees services hand out methadone and needles to addicts in the hope of stabilising their lives and preventing infection.

In a recent report, he found that, three years after going on a methadone course, only 3% of addicts remained totally drug-free.

McKeganey told Scotland on Sunday: "I think it is right that we have a clearer direction of policy which is toughening the approach."

McKeganey met First Minister Jack McConnell in the wake of the report, and Labour ministers have now appeared to change tack in line with his findings. While methadone services will continue, senior Labour sources say that the focus will be on getting all addicts off drugs.

One senior Labour figure said: "Our view is that there is a place for methadone but it should not be about people being parked on it and then left for years. There has to be an aim of getting them drug-free. Yes, we will help them but they have got a responsibility. People have just thought up till now that they have a right to methadone and that's it."

The insider added: "We feel very strongly that this agenda has been run by a fairly narrow range of people and not enough attention is being paid to people and their families. It is time to shift the balance away from them".

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson is understood to be furious over the lengthy wait addicts are being forced to endure in order to get into rehabilitation, and is now pressing Health Minister Andy Kerr to put pressure on health boards.

Jamieson is also said to be in favour of ex-addicts being sent into schools: a tactic first employed in the 1980s which is strongly opposed by addiction services, who said scaring children did not work.

Scots Tory leader Annabel Goldie - who has long pressed for a stronger focus on drug prevention - said: "The biggest thing we have been calling for is a sea change in the attitude of the government. If, at long last, Labour is waking up then that has got to be welcomed, but it should not need an election for it to happen. It needs to happen now."

But David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: "The risk with abstinence is that if people are without proper support and are pushed too quickly you get a revolving door where they are off drugs for a while before going back on. We need more light than heat and unfortunately in the run up to an election, you get more heat."

One plans to introduce ex-addicts into schools, he added: "These were felt to be inappropriate because they employed shock horror tactics and all the evidence is that these tactics don't work and can lead to an increase in drug use."