Scotland’s Justice Secretary has heard first hand about police efforts to tackle the menace of drugs across Angus communities.
Kenny MacAskill spoke to officers at Arbroath police station ahead of attending the Scottish Cabinet’s meeting in the town.
He said: “There’s understandable public concern and I’m delighted with the attitude and actions that the police are taking.
“We face challenges with legal highs. Even the terminology is designed to imply that it’s safe and every weekend we see another tragedy.
“The benefit of Police Scotland is that additional resources can go in when it’s required, whether it’s in Arbroath or anywhere else people are deployed.”
Police Scotland Commander for Angus Gordie Milne said: “With regards to legal highs, we’ve identified an issue, seen it’s a major problem and we’ve gone and tackled it, whereas before we maybe would not have had the time, resource or specialist knowledge to do that.
“Now we can tap into that with any issues, the barriers have gone. We can pull in the resource across the whole of Scotland and ask for help.
“The lessons we are learning and developing here are now getting shared with Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.
“Before, passing on that information was more stifled, now it’s a simple email.
“We saw the connections between people who were taking legal highs and heroin and the community ill-feeling about it.”