{"id":14059,"date":"2017-11-14T01:23:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T01:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=14059"},"modified":"2018-02-12T19:06:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T19:06:07","slug":"scotlands-war-on-drugs-is-a-record-of-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2017\/11\/scotlands-war-on-drugs-is-a-record-of-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s War On Drugs Is A \u2018Record Of Failure\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Neil McKeganey fears police are not as interested in cracking down on heroin any more <strong>SCOTLAND\u2019S efforts to tackle its status as Europe\u2019s worst drugs blackspot has been branded a \u201crecord of failure not success\u201d by one of the country\u2019s a leading drugs experts.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">The Scottish Government\u2019s flagship \u201cRoad to Recovery\u201d strategy has not had any \u201cmarked impact\u201d on drug abuse, according to Dr Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse research.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">He also hits out at failures among local Alcohol and Drug partnerships (ADPs) to deliver on the ground and fears police are not as interested in cracking down on heroin any more as cocaine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u201cIt is not a lack of knowledge (although there are significant gaps in knowledge) that has truly hampered efforts at tackling Scotland\u2019s drugs problem,\u201d he states in a new essay.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/news\/health\/scotland-s-war-on-drugs-is-hugely-inefficient-1-1919210\"><strong>Scotland\u2019s war on drugs \u2018is hugely inefficient\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u201cRather there appears to have been successive shortcomings in the capacity to combine drug policy at the strategic level with a clear mechanism for implementation at the `street level.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">The criticism has been published in a new booklet published by the Conservatives entitled Justice Matters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Dr McKeganey also warns there are \u201cvery real concerns\u201d at the way Scotland\u2019s methadone programme is being used, with a lack of information about those on the programme and those leaving it drug free.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">\u201cHalf of all drug deaths in Scotland are now linked to methadone compared to a figure of 14% in England\u201d he adds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the booklet sets out \u201cstraightforward, no-nonsense Conservative policies that reflect the concerns of mainstream Scotland.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">She added: \u201cOur aim is to cut crime and anti-social behaviour, make our communities safer and improve the quality of life for ordinary Scots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/news\/politics\/top-stories\/scotland-s-war-on-drugs-is-a-record-of-failure-1-3665809\">http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/news\/politics\/top-stories\/scotland-s-war-on-drugs-is-a-record-of-failure-1-3665809<\/a>\u00a0 19<sup>th<\/sup> Jan.2015<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neil McKeganey fears police are not as interested in cracking down on heroin any more SCOTLAND\u2019S efforts to tackle its status as Europe\u2019s worst drugs blackspot has been branded a \u201crecord of failure not success\u201d by one of the country\u2019s a leading drugs experts. The Scottish Government\u2019s flagship \u201cRoad to Recovery\u201d strategy has not had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prevention-research","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}