City's Credit Crunch Junkies

Glasgow must guard against unemployment creating a new generation of drug addicts.

The bleak warning was issued by a former top cop as new figures revealed the city last year recorded its highest number of drug deaths for the last 10 years. There were 135 drug related deaths in Glasgow last year. The rise in deaths, up 11% on the previous year, and almost 50% higher than in 1999, has led to fears that the addiction problem in the city is growing.

Across Scotland the number of drug deaths reduced slightly, and in the other cities it either fell or was static, but in Glasgow, which has had a hard drug problem for the last 30 years, it has been on the rise again. The majority of deaths were among people in the 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 age groups, an illustration of the long term nature of the drug issue, with some addicts having a chronic problem dating back 20 years or more.

The Government said the death toll was too high and was working to reduce it, but a former head of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency said their efforts are not effective. Former police deputy chief constable, Graeme Pearson, now Professor of Organised Crime at Glasgow University, said economic decline breeds crime and drug abuse and warned the Government their tactics were failing to address all the issues.

He said: “You need the right housing, the right health and right employment response. “What is happening in the drug abusing population is down to overall lifestyle. “They are not only taking heroin, but methadone and diazepam and others drugs including alcohol. Alcohol is a factor in a third of drug related deaths.