Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Staggering’ number of needles found in Scottish courts

Post Thumbnail

Drug addicts are attempting to smuggle needles into Scotland’s courts every day with Dundee at the top of the list.

More than 2,000 needles have been confiscated in court buildings across the country, but a Courier freedom of information request has revealed that, despite this, not a single user has been found injecting, snorting or consuming drugs in Scottish courts in the last five years.

The figures show 367 needles were taken from addicts at Dundee Sheriff Court between 2009 and 2011 21 more than the combined 346 at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Since recording incidents by area began in 2009, the needle count for courts in Tayside and Fife has reached 491 around one discovery every three days.

The statistics from the Scottish Courts Service, from 2007 to last October, revealed 2,222 needles were found across Scotland.

Security staff picked up 39 needles at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last year, 34 in Kirkcaldy and 37 in Perth.

North East MSP Alex Johnstone said it was difficult to believe there was no drug taking in Scottish courts given the “staggering” amount of paraphernalia seized.

“There are not always staff on duty at the door to carry out searches, which may mean the situation is much worse than thought,” he said.

“Given that measures have been taken to try and stop drug taking in court toilets, including, I understand, signage which warns the public that needles have been found there, then people will find it extremely hard to believe that with so many confiscations there is no drug taking in Scotland’s courts.”

For more on this story, see Monday’s Courier or try our new digital edition.