A blog post by Duncan Stott at Split Horizons is garnering some interest today. It suggests that there may be some unwanted consequences of criminalising mephedrone, or as it is more commonly known here in Angus, bubbles.

Duncan suggests that:

Mephedrone users will continue to use mephedrone. They like the feeling that the drug provides, and will continue to seek (and may be addicted) to the high it provides. Instead of suppliers who were complying with the law, mephedrone will now be provided to them by criminal gangs, who will command an inflated, untaxed premium for the drug. Some addicts will turn to crime to fund their habit. The strength and purity of mephedrone will greatly vary, to the detriment of the health of users. Rivalry between the drug gangs will bring violence and weapons to inner-city streets.

Duncan is wrong on several counts. Speaking to Fiona Walsh of the Volunteer Centre Angus, I discovered that mephedrone is cheaper than booze. If mephedrone develops quality issues and becomes more expensive, kids will switch back to drinking alcohol. Secondly, addicts turn to crime when they cannot afford their drug of choice. Given how cheap mephedrone is, this is unlikely. He is also wrong to assume that the legal suppliers of mephedrone are not just a front for the criminal gangs supplying illegal drugs.

Mephedrone users will switch to more familiar highs, such as cocaine or ecstasy, that mephedrone attempted to emulate. They will be supplied by criminal gangs, with all the above problems.

Again, it is more likely that users will switch to alcohol or other cheap drugs such as cannabis, rather than more expensive, harder to come by drugs. Also, it might surprise Duncan, but being illegal does actually sometimes work as a deterrent for young people, who do not want to fall foul of the law.

Previously legitimate businesses that supplied mephedrone will be forced to close, with subsequent job losses. This is at odds with Gordon Brown’s statement that “every redundancy is a personal tragedy. Every lost job is an aspiration destroyed. Every business closure is someone’s dream in ruins.”

I do not count companies selling mephedrone, that has been specifically developed as a legal high as “legitimate businesses”. Duncan is being extremely naive if he thinks that the same criminal gangs that sell illegal drugs are not behind the legal ones that sell mephedrone. I doubt that you will find mephedrone on sale at your local garden centre.

Mephedrone users will switch to some of the many other legal highs on the market. Like mephedrone, the effects of these new drugs will not be known by science, and may be more dangerous than mephedrone, causing a new wave of deaths, and a new wave of calls for government action.

Here Duncan may be right. However leaving mephedrone legal will not stop new, more dangerous drugs being developed.

If we were to follow Duncan’s logic through for other narcotics and legalise them, we can look to our two legal drugs, alcohol and nicotine to see what the impacts on our society would be:

• Charity Turning Point claims that there are 1m children living with alcoholic parents. We would condemn how many more kids to a such an upbringing?
• Driving under the influence is a major issue across the country. There is no equivalent to a breathalyser for most drugs. How much would it cost to police Drug Driving? How many more police would be needed? More importantly how many innocent people would be killed on our roads?
• My father died of lung cancer. Seeing the other lung cancer patients on the hospital wards really brought home to me the impact of smoking on families, children and the NHS. Cannabis is primarily smoked, often mixed in with nicotine, in unfiltered joints. Legalising it will only increase the cost of treating lung cancer in this country
• Lost business hours. Already businesses lose time to workers who are addicted to alcohol or have smoking related illnesses. How much of an impact will legalising drugs have on our businesses and our economy?

Neither banning drugs, nor legalising them answers the fundamental question: why do people turn to drugs? The answers are complicated and the solutions even more so. I discussed this in more detail in my previous blog which you can read by clicking here.

What then is the solution? Well as I wrote in the blog post above:

Instead we must break the cycle of alcohol abuse and demonstrate to these children that there is a positive alternative.

We have to be serious about helping parents overcome their alcohol addiction, provide separate support for the children and then help to rebuild these families.

We need to get young people who have been drug and alcohol abusers themselves, to go and talk to children about their experiences. Just like the excellent Fiona Walsh is doing for the Volunteer Centre Angus, based in Arbroath.

And we must also ensure that children have places to go and things to do, that do not involve alcohol, like the Attic Project in Brechin or the CAFE project in Arbroath.

The problems we need to solve are “social exclusion”, for lack of an equally succinct phrase, a cycle of abuse in families and a lack of positive alternatives and awareness of a different way of living for young people. Criminalising drugs does not solve any of these problems. But nor does legalising drugs, or leaving news one legal and instead will have a massive negative effect on our society. The solutions to these problems are complex, difficult and will take a long time, perhaps generations. There is, unfortunately, no easy, quick fix.

Alcohol, Community, Crime, Drugs, Law & Order, Society, Young People

I am asking Forfar, Kirriemuir and Brechin residents to have their say on plans to change fire station provision in Angus. Tayside Fire and Rescue Board are proposing to switch a whole time night shift at Balmossie Fire Station to a whole time day shift at Forfar Fire Station. Currently there is no whole time provision in Forfar, Kirriemuir or Brechin. Instead, the stations are retained, which means that firemen are on call, but not based full time at the station.

I visited Forfar fire station with local Community Councillor and activist, Avril Simpson. As I understand it, the overnight crew at Balmossie fire station in Broughty Ferry were not called to a single house fire in the last 3 months of 2009, and were only called to two, relatively minor secondary fires between October and December. The Fire Board are arguing that a retained service overnight at Balmossie would be sufficient to meet the needs of local residents, based on 6 years of operational incidents across Tayside.

The retained fire crews across Angus and the whole of Tayside provide an excellent service, securing the safety of local residents.

The Fire Board noted that the peak time for incidents were during the day. They also stated that research indicates that prevention and early detection is the best way to save lives. They argue that a whole time day shift in Forfar would allow fire crews to carry out Home Fire Safety Visits, which the retained fire men are currently unable to do, due to their full time employment commitments.

Cllr Ken Lyall, Chair of the local Fire Board believes that this change will improve emergency response in Forfar, Kirriemuir and Brechin during the day, without impacting overnight cover in Broughty Ferry. The Board also believes that by conducting Home Fire Safety Visits, Tayside Fire and Rescue Service will be able to save more lives.

It is crucial that local people have their say on whether they would like these changes to go ahead. I will be distributing a Focus leaflet in Forfar and will ask local residents about their wishes. In the meantime, residents from across Angus can contact me with their views by commenting below. Or if you wish to keep your views private, you can email me at contact@sanjaysamani.com or by mail at Viewpark, Meethill Road, Alyth, PH11 8DE.

Brechin, Emergency Services, Fire & Rescue, Forfar, Kirriemuir

I visited Arbroath’s Signal Tower Museum on a cold, frosty morning. I was delighted to hear from Cllr David May, Convener of Infrastructure Services, that the museum secured £450,000 of investment in the recently passed Angus budget.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the museum, the displays are fresh, informative and give a real feel for what life was like for ordinary folk living in Arbroath over the years. Staff there indicated that there were a huge number of items the museum would dearly like to share with the people of Arbroath. Therefore, it is wonderful news that the historic Signal Tower Museum has secured £450,000 for significant renovation from Angus Council.

David mentioned that the model of The Bell Rock Lighthouse, acquired by Angus Council, is included in the BBC’s History of the World in 100 Objects. It is no wonder then, that Angus Council want to support Arbroath and put the town at centre stage for the Bell Rock Lighthouse Bicentenary celebrations.

This significant investment in the Signal Tower is long overdue and I congratulate Angus Council in their vision in investing in Arbroath to help the community celebrate its rich engineering history. It will benefit the whole of Angus, not only in the Year of the Light, but well into the future.

David had said “ This allocation of funding on Arbroath’s Signal Tower is not just for the 2011 international celebrations of ‘the Year of the Light’, but in my view is very much part of our Council’s commitment to heritage tourism. This is a fundamental part of our wish to boost Arbroath. As tourism is one of Angus’s key economic drivers, this considerable investment in the Signal Tower is hugely welcome. I am just disappointed that the SNP did not support us in celebrating Arbroath’s heritage.”

Arbroath, Culture, Heritage, Museums

I accompanied by Regional Lib Dem MSP Alison McInnes and Montrose councillor David May visited the YM and had lunch at the community cafe. They heard from Val Cooper of the YM and committee member Anna Roberston, of the funding issues faced by the YM and the actions they have taken to resolve them.

Val and the YM supporters are doing a superb job in meeting the needs of the people in Montrose. The cafe was completely full when we visited, which just goes to show how successful it is. The customers that I spoke to were all really enthusiastic about the YM and the cafe’s role as a community meeting place.

I was also met members of the over 50’s club, and listen to their local concerns. With activities for all ages, the YM is one of those rare services that allows the whole community to come together. It is always a pleasure to see local people coming together to support each other.

David and Alison commented that the lunch was not only excellent value and of high quality, but quite obviously serves the needs of the community, given how well the community cafe is supported.

Community, Elderly, Montrose, Young People

Alberto Costa, the Tory candidate for Angus, recently wrote to the Brechin Advertiser to set out his views on tackling alcohol abuse in Scotland, particularly amongst younger people.

In his letter, he talked at length about how in mainland Europe, “children are exposed to alcoholic drinks, such as a glass of wine over a normal family dinner… removing any of the mystiques that so many of our youngsters attach to alcohol.”

Mr Costa is clearly completely out of touch with the real causes of under age drinking in Scotland. Fellow Angus Lib Dems and I have discussed precisely this issue with social workers, teachers and community workers. We recently met organisers of The Attic Project in Brechin when, amongst other issues, we discussed under age drinking. In a study amongst their youngsters, by far the most common factor for drinking was being surrounded at home by heavy drinkers, in many cases to the point where the children are neglected.

In fact, charity Turning Point, claimed last year that 1.3 million children across the UK are living with parents who misuse alcohol. Far from being a “mystique”, alcohol is a regular part of these children’s lives, disrupting their families, and leaving them exposed to rage, violence and neglect. This has been shown to create a negative self image amongst children, increase levels of depression and truancy, and affect their attainment at school and later in life. These children are growing up thinking that heavy drinking is normal behaviour.

No fewer than 40,000 children have been fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol related offences across the UK in the last five years. Criminalising these children will just expose them to an even harsher existence, and may well condemn them to long term drug and alcohol abuse and a life of crime. Instead we must break the cycle of alcohol abuse and demonstrate to these children that there is a positive alternative.

We have to be serious about helping parents overcome their alcohol addiction, provide separate support for the children and then help to rebuild these families.

We need to get young people who have been drug and alcohol abusers themselves, to go and talk to children about their experiences. Just like the excellent Fiona Walsh is doing for the Volunteer Centre Angus, based in Arbroath.

And we must also ensure that children have places to go and things to do, that do not involve alcohol, like the Attic Project in Brechin or the CAFE project in Arbroath.

By coincidence, this week, 14-20 February is the Children of Alcoholics Week, and I would encourage everyone to learn more about the issues facing the most vulnerable members of our community by clicking here to get tot he Children of Alcoholics Week website.

If Mr Costa and the Tories want to solve such a crucial issue for Scotland, they first need to properly understand the causes.

Addiction, Alberto Costa, Alcohol, Drugs, Tory, Young People