By Bruce Robbins

TAYSIDE POLICE yesterday admitted they are losing the war against drugs and, despite efforts over the last 10 to 20 years, “things are getting worse.”

Deputy Chief Constable Kevin Mathieson was responding at a meeting of Tayside Joint Police Board to a question from Angus councillor Frank Ellis, who was concerned that hospital admissions for drug taking were up by 50%.

Councillor Ellis said that, despite police action, there was a rise in drug misuse and this was having a big impact in society.

DCC Mathieson said the force was awaiting a new Scottish strategy on dealing with drugs but agreed there was recognition that there had been no improvement.

He said, “Over the last 10 to 20 years, if what we were doing had been successful, there would be fewer drug abusers, drugs would be harder to obtain and they would be dearer.

“Instead, we have more drug deaths and overdoses, more people are becoming addicted, drugs are freely available and they are cheaper than alcohol.

“When you sit back and look at it, the only way we are having an effect is in stopping organised crime groups (becoming involved in drugs).

“We need the national government to put funding into different systems so that we can coerce drug users into getting treatment. We need something to break the cycle of crime.”

The drugs issue arose during discussion of the force’s Advance programme which is designed to consider ways of improving performance and providing a better quality of service to Tayside.

One of the sections of the document said that, whilst the force had achieved “excellent” results over the years in tackling those engaged in drug trafficking in Tayside, the market nature of the drug economy meant the effects of this work often appeared to have had little impact on the harm caused to communities, the overall number of addicts and the availability and price of illegal drugs.

A revised force drugs strategy has been drafted and work is ongoing to ensure that the proposals properly fit within both a national and Tayside context.

The review identified that there would be a benefit in setting up a community task force to spearhead the enforcement efforts needed on a longer-term basis.

DCC Mathieson admitted, however, that even this might not be enough to improve the quality of life in those communities worst affected by drugs.

He said, “What we want to do is identify those communities most blighted by crime and see if we can make a significant difference in those localised areas over a period of three, four or five months.

“That’s where the community task force comes in.

“We are not 100% certain it will work, but what we do know is that what we are doing is not working.

“Every single drug user is a drug dealer helping to spread drugs in society.

“The more we can do to reduce their numbers will have an effect on crime.”

Chief Constable John Vine told board members that this did not mean police were going to go soft in dealing with drug crimes.

He said, “We are in the law enforcement business and that’s our primary purpose, let’s make no mistake here.

“We are not going to go soft on enforcing drugs laws, I can assure you of that.”